Saturday, May 26, 2012

I don't know how He will do it ... but He will!

This afternoon I attended a high school graduation at Lake Center Christian School.  Usually graduations do not exactly enthrall me but today was, well, quite enthralling.  Twenty-two young, fresh, bright energized, hopeful young men and women, all going to colleges, many with scholarships; just a great crop.  I can assume and hope to one day have some in a class or two of mine at the university level.  I say that for assuming that will happen in say the next two or three years, this Crop of 22 will have grown much more than the three calendar years for some will have tasted the bitter taste of loss, defeat, disappointment, frustration, etc.  All of those, by the way, carry a very potentially positive charge for with each of the negatives that life can bestow, there is always the potential for wisdom to be gained from the experience of self induced bad choices.

What enthralled me this afternoon was less about the procession and pomp but the message or sermon delivered by Jeff Knori, the school's Campus Pastor.  It would be impossible to summarize the great message he delivered but it is possible to position the genesis of his comments that really grabbed my attention as I think about the lives I get to touch as they get a little older than the Crop of 22. 

Having lived in Europe, I was always mesmerized by the beauty of the grape vineyards throughout the landscape of Europe nestled and clustered around beautiful river valleys.  Many times I have stopped the car to exit and look at the masterful work done to bring a crop of grapes to harvest.  Time, timing, water, sunshine, rain, soil temperature and grafting are all integral components of the vineyard process.  But it is grafting that Jeff eloquently built his message upon and thus ignited in me a refreshed desire to be the best I can be as a teacher of young minds.

A common theme Jeff used was about God's phenomenal power to make things beautiful.  His thematic term used in many ways during his comments is the subject of today's blog: "I don't know how He will do it ... but He Will!"  For grapes, and people, to be better than they would be naturally, requires precision grafting of a limb, a life, to a master branch.  The grafting is not without pain, certainly not without worry or concern but still, part of a master process.  

For grapes to grow for the harvester rich, full, flavorful, delectable fruits requires a time of cutting, taping into another, a master vine, that, when the healing is completed, the new biological entity is much better than it would be had it been left to its own natural growth steps.  I believe you can see, now, where I was touched today and in my heart this moment. 

It may be a parent, a boss, a teacher, a professor, a physician, a whatever master vine maybe but a master whose values are high, whose intentions wholesome and whose motivation to see the new branch be the best they can be is what is mandated for a richer, better harvest.  The real challenge I believe for those in positions of influence is to constantly mirror people and ideologies that are bigger and better than you the person of influence might be for you see, the grafting process is seamless and without end. So yes, pain is part of the process but the richness of the harvest is worth any and all the pain of the grafting

Today has re-fired my engines to be the best master vine I can be for my wife, my children, my grand children and those Crop of Hundreds I get to be part of but for a little while each semester.  It is my greatest honor in this life to be given this opportunity to teach, to coach, to enforce, to establish, to stretch, to challenge, to push, to drive, to hold accountable for all of those factors, while possibly painful at the point of the graft, will yield rich fruit. Further, and I believe as importantly, that each of those that are grafted to me and to others of influence will see the powerful result of the grafting process and seek to be a master vine as their years of influence unfold.

I am going to send this to Jeff Knori as my way of thanking him for allowing God to be where I needed to be for his grafting into me this day. I felt revived, humbled and empowered and wish the Fall semester was ready to begin Monday.

So when we look at new growth, new life, new horizons in the people we touch on this journey and we see beauty, productivity, innovation, drive, ambition, results, we may not know how God made that happen but we know He did. Further, and more importantly, those of us given this blessing of influence in the many positions that touch the lives of our future, cannot know how our touch will graft new life and new horizons for the young shoots but He, our Sovereign God, will and He does. That makes us instruments to a great work but requires patience and hope and also injection of pain of newness but it is worth it.

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