We spent Tuesday night with the Presbyterian Campus Ministry group at the University of Arizona.
Different School. Different decade. Different denomination.
Yet so many things were the same.
The enthusiasm, the passion, the talents and abilities that come out so strongly when young people are not only able to, not only encouraged to, but expected to lead.
Watching the girl who provided an amazing meal, the young woman who was so refreshingly childlike in her acceptance and ability to make people feel welcome and at home, the boys goofing around during dinner change into men as they set up for worship and sat down to lead the music, reminded me of my days at Lutheran Campus Ministry of Northern Arizona University.
Yet there was more than the personalities, activities, and actions that called out to me and my memory. There was an intangible feeling among the relationships that we witnessed. A sense of community, of mutual understanding, of love, that I instantly felt connected to. As if I belonged there. As if I had never left my campus ministry.
We can claim it is that sense of nostalgia. We can pass it off as a similar setting, situation, or climate. Some might even claim it is a desire to recapture a youth that I left behind upon graduating in 1997.
The truth however, is so much stronger than any of that. The truth is that it is the Spirit running through that group of people that I responded to. It was the familiarity of the Body of Christ that called out to me. It was that immediate recognition that these young men and woman are a small representation of the amazing potential, the shining future, and the undying HOPE that lies within any Christian community that shares the highs and lows of life together.
It was truly a privilege to watch so many young Christians gather as they embark on a life of serving God and each other, while they find a way to take that into the world.
