The day I stole the Beatitudes

Friday was the last day for Taylor Fort Wayne.  I felt very grateful that the task to lock everything up for the last time fell on me...grateful that our campus wouldn't be closed by someone who didn't understand the full significance of the act.  I somehow managed to grasp onto denial until one of the HR reps handed me a box full of unmarked keys collected during exit interviews.  The box is still sitting on a desk in our now nearly emptied office.  All different shapes, sizes, colors, markings, some with lanyards still attached, some that look like John Tesh would have an opinion on their sanitary-"ness"  And one of these days I'll have to sort through them and cross off names, but not today.

Most of the appliances in the kitchen were uprooted and prepared for transport...as well as a hallway lined with pots, pans, and bags of cereal.  

I think walking through Witmer would've been easier if everyone had taken everything and there were just empty offices.  It just looked ransacked and abandoned.  Name plates were gone---some special individuals took some drywall off with theirs.  Many professors left piles of papers and posters and old coffee mugs.  There was at least one hallway full of stuff marked for transport to Upland.  One admissions counselor had taken most everything but left a poem entitled "We won't quit" sitting on top of the desk.  

By 6pm--Agnes was still loading a truck full of stuff, Tami was still finishing a few last data entry things, and I was helping Deb Shaw and Dr Platte move things into Brown Gables for the Alumni Office.  Some things won't ever change.  

It was weird and sad and surreal.  There is a song by Jon Foreman called "The House of God, Forever" that I've come to love in the past few weeks.  "God is my shepherd, I won't be wanting, I won't be wanting....he makes me rest in fields of green, by quiet streams....even though I'm walking through the valley of death and dying...I will not fear for you are with me...you're always with me...your shepherd staff comforts me....you are my feast in the presence of enemy....surely goodness will follow me...follow me in the house of God, forever..."

His faithfulness, gentleness, wisdom, presence, goodness.....in the journey of our alma mater, in our own lives separate and together, and what has yet to come...but we know that he causes all things to work together for good to those that love him.  

You should look up the song if you get a chance, the music really makes the song....