I am proud of each of my children. They have all done very well in school. Lauren graduated from high school with honors, and is in the Honors College at her University. Whitney graduated 10th out of over 800 students in her class from high school, and she and Lauren both have received the maximum academic scholarships in college. BJ was number one in his class in high school, and had the attitude of "It's no big deal, cause I'm not really trying."

At this point is sounds like I am bragging. That is not my intent. I am proud of my children's academic accomplishments, but Deanna and I feel very blessed to have children who have so much on the ball in this way, and we have never taken it for granted.

When students reach high school, every parent (and student for that matter) will remember the onslaught of college mail they begin to receive. Advertisements from colleges and universities come in by the armload. I've heard parents brag over what universities their child is hearing from. My attitude is different.

Most of that stuff goes into the trash... some of it unopened. We've been through it with our daughters, and so kind of got used to it. Sometime after his death, it began to come for BJ. I usually sorted through it, and threw it away so noone else would see it or be upset by it. I find myself wondering, now that it is being forwarded to Oklahoma, if this is one of those things in life I just have to accept. Is there a way to stop this from happening? Would it take years and a lot of money to get them to stop?

I am ready to not have the frequent reminder that he won't be going to college. Every time one of these arrives, it is a bit like being stuck with a needle at the Doctors office. I don't like that either, by the way.

During the time we spent in the hospital with him, I remember Deanna and I discussing how foolish it would be to send him back to school anyway. Not because he had learned enough already, but because it seemed clear to us that the call on his life was ministry, specifically, missions. Education would be helpful, but in all honesty, we looked at all that the Lord had done through him already, and thought, sending him to school will be wasting his calling and his gifting, as what was truly important had become abundantly clear. That is sharing Christ with a lost and dying world, immediately.

My wife and I both have college degrees. I am not anti-education. It's just that we received a new view, a new perspective. From the depths of Beej's suffering, and our exhaustion came a clarity (at least we perceived it as such) that time was short, and he must be freed to minister, and not bound by the traditional prerequisite, of years of study. He was already studying on his own. He was teaching himself Spanish, because he knew he needed it on the field. He had begun to study Greek, again self taught. He was frequently reading Christ centered books that many adults have never taken the time to peruse. He was writing, he was impacting his world, and people were responding!

Who were we to insist that he get more education? God was using him enormously. Why should we intervene?

Then HE did, and took that decision out of our hands.

School is good. It should be pursued by students. This writing is not intended to give those who don't want to go, a crutch to bolster their position. My point is that sometimes in extreme situations, conventional wisdom needs to be set aside. We need to be close enough to our Lord to recognize when those times arise, and then sensitive enough to His leading to respond appropriately.

In some fringe way, I guess the Lord was preparing us for the fact that BJ would not go back to school.

Now if I could just get word to the colleges and universities, who keep stuffing my mail box, and pricking my emotions.

Be blessed today,

dad

To anonymous from 10:13 yesterday, there is a book underway, but you can also find some of my sons writings if you go into the archives from August, September, etc. Thank you so much for your interest!