I am experiencing Advent this year as a thin season. I love the image of heaven whispering. And that makes me think about all the angels at work in the Christmas stories. Angels with Mary, Zechariah, Elizabeth, the shepherds – and maybe with us.
Our campus and our broader community have been dealing with an unusual amount of grief this fall. This blog is adapted from comments I made in the special convocation on campus, “Holding Grief in Community,” on Oct. 26, 2022.
Anxiety has become a national crisis. This is the conclusion of a U.S. panel of experts, and it is also the manifest reality for many of us who are parents, community members, pastors, teachers, employers – let’s just say for all of us who are humans.
In a time when student and family values nationally around higher education are shifting toward making a lot of money, Goshen College stands for something different. We do want our students to get good jobs. ... But we also offer a life oriented toward values that transcend financial wealth.
As Goshen’s president, it is a continual pleasure to see our students make new connections – academically, socially, spiritually and professionally. In Indonesia this summer, I had the opportunity to experience this personally and deeply for myself.
Abortion policy matters to me as a Christian advocate for human dignity and nonviolence, a global health professional, a woman, a close friend of people on both sides of the political divide, and a college president committed to supporting our students and employees through this transition. As I process the new realities, and my own words and actions, several commitments arise for me.
It’s now been a full week since an 18-year-old white man opened fire at a Tops Friendly Market in a mostly Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York. I will not say, “This is not who we are,” because clearly, this is us. We are many things in this nation, and the evil of white supremacy is a part of us.
One of the great things about gardening is that the garden talks back. I am constantly learning what works and what doesn’t work, grappling with the realities of my garden and myself, and yielding to them.
We are living through hard times. As researcher and author Brene Brown said in a January 2022 podcast, “People are not okay.” And that was before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Mr. Rogers famously said that in times of catastrophe, “look for the helpers.” And if you look for the helpers, you’ll know there is hope.
As I struggle to comprehend what is unfolding in Ukraine, I’ve had the privilege of traveling with our Vox Profundi Choir during our spring break tour along the East Coast. I revel in the energy, joy and discipline of our talented students in these venues. And it has been a profound reminder that music, art and beauty are deep sources of balm, pointing us to peace, hope and love.
