From the Pastor’s Desk (288)
“When something is so beautiful, your heart aches. It was a painfully beautiful night.”
Forty-one college seniors from the University of Houston and Rice University, who are either registered members of New Life or connected to our college house churches, are graduating. We held our annual Senior Appreciation (SA) dinner last night.
The theme was “Night Market.” The entire fellowship hall and meal were decorated and prepared with that theme in mind. It was so wonderful to see many underclassmen joyfully serving from Saturday morning until Sunday night, when the event finally concluded.
After dinner, I had the opportunity to watch all the videos that underclassmen from each house church had made to appreciate, honor, and roast their seniors. Since we have about fifteen college house churches at New Life, I got to see about fifteen videos.
All the videos were incredibly creative and funny, yet also deeply touching and emotional. I couldn’t believe how gifted our college students are.
The music, the dance, the laughter flowing from so much creativity—where did all these beautiful things come from? They came from God, because our God is the God of music, dance, and laughter. He is the Creator of the universe, and every good and perfect gift comes from Him.
As I watched and enjoyed all the videos, I noticed one common thread running through everything that happened during SA: Family.
Every single video prepared by each house church portrayed a beautiful picture of a family filled with joy, laughter, goofiness, and life. That’s what house church has become for them. I am sure that each house church had its share of frustrations, sadness, hardships, and difficulties. However, the moments of joy and laughter captured in the videos are so real and life-giving that all the difficult and painful moments now seem pale and distant. These students will graduate and move on to their “adult life” carrying these beautiful memories—memories that will serve as a North Star, always pointing them to Christ and to the church He dreams of building.
When I saw all the videos featuring precious, smiling, and goofy faces with funny captions accompanied by beautifully chosen background music, I felt my heart constrict—it was painfully good. That’s what happens to our hearts when something is truly beautiful.
We cannot thrive—no, we cannot even survive—without life-giving community. It’s because the God we worship is a Triune God—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—who exists in perfect, loving community, and we are made in His image. We will experience life as God intended only when we find ourselves living in a life-giving, loving community.
Some—if not many—of our college students come from broken, dysfunctional families where they experienced insecurity, fear, darkness, and volatility because their own parents struggled. Without fully knowing what was missing in their lives, they came to college. But when they encountered the beautiful family called house church, they began to experience safety, security, peace, joy, and abundant life. Even without having the words to name what was missing, they felt and sensed: “This is where I belong. This is what I’ve always been yearning for—to be a part of God’s family.”
I can still see all those beautiful faces, hear all the bright and joyful laughter, and feel the emotions our students carried last night:
“I like this. There is something right about this. This is what I need. This is where I belong. I want this for the rest of my life. God, help me find this ‘FAMILY’ of Yours wherever I go.”
I also saw tears streaming down the faces of our college pastor couple. They are like the spiritual mom and dad our students have away from home—the spiritual parents many of them may have never had. I am so grateful for this beautiful pastoral couple. This beautiful night would not have been possible without their tireless toil and hard work.
It was a painfully beautiful night.
Your pastor,
Pastor Eric
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