by David Melton
I took a look in the mirror a couple of months back and didn’t like what I saw. There was just — how can I say this? — too much of me. I knew what that meant, diet time, and I’ve been making some progress on that front. Until last week.
Last week I was wrestling with our 5-year-old, Joshua, when he squeezed my face and said, “Daddy, you’re skinny.” “Thanks, buddy,” I garbled, while he kept tugging and pulling on my jowls.
Then it dawned on me! Joshua didn’t think I was skinny. He thought I had a lot of skin…I was “skin-ey.” That was no compliment. That was five-year-old for “Hey Pops, you got way more skin than a man ought to have!” Ouch.
What we see and what others see, not necessarily the same thing.
I see Boston Baptist College as a life’s work, as a challenge to educate a new generation of Baptist church leaders to take the 21st century by storm. I see our college as a joint effort of churches to make sure young leaders have a place to prepare for ministry with defined doctrine and a passion for excellence and reaching people with the gospel of Christ. I often say that, while almost every other of the 100 or so campuses in Boston is bigger than ours, I cannot imagine that God is doing more anywhere on a New England campus than He is doing at 950 Metropolitan Avenue. That is honestly what I see.
Others see something else. I regularly attend meetings with the other college presidents in our city. I suspect none of them thinks much of our “little” college. We have none of the status symbols they crave. We haven’t had our first Rhodes Scholar. We have no meaningful endowment. No Division I sports.
But there is more here than meets the eye. What about students who just a couple of years ago had lives wrecked by sin, and today they are serving the Lord and bringing others to faith? How about the joy of watching students learn to build a biblical worldview, precept upon precept — as we say it here often…to think biblically. Would you prefer a varsity lacrosse program to a student prayer movement? I have worked with 25 students all semester on studying text for biblical truth about the local church. Next semester I will do it all again with a different group of students in a different area of biblical studies. I daily watch profs and staff members give students individualized attention — in the classroom, in the lunchroom, sharing life, and sharing love for Christ. Some may look at this venture in Boston and see little. I don’t see it that way at all. And I am pretty sure the Lord Jesus sees it like I do.
So, no matter how you tug this Boston thing, or what way you twist it, call it “skinny” or “skin-ey”…I see good and growing. We are working at it all the time. Hope you notice.