At 2:30 this morning the alarm went off and a groggy body slowly meandered toward the shower to try to wake up.  Today was the day that I had an appointment to see my oldest daughter in Chicago where she lived.  It seemed like ages since I had visited her in her rooted place of residence.  My youngest daughter agreed to stay overnight and take us to the airport at 3:30 on her day off.  What a trooper.

We got to the airport with no hassle–no traffic at 4:00 in the morning.  The plane took off at 5:20am and I don’t remember much of the flight as I was trying to catch up on the sleep I was deprived of from the irritating alarm 3 hours previously.  I landed at Midway Airport and waited a few minutes before she arrived on the train that we rode back to her apartment.  It was a wonderful time of talking about what she had planned for me to see and do.

We got off the train and walked about 10 minutes to her apartment where we placed my bags, said hello to her wonderful roommate Patty and were off again to her office at Moody.

She introduced me to some of her colleagues and had me sit down at her desk while she had a couple of appointments she needed to attend with.  She gave me some things I could read if I wanted to and one of them was a 360 evaluation that her boss, her colleagues, and her students wrote about her in evaluating her leadership styles as well as her character and many other things.

As I read over the 22 page document, I began to experience a heart of appreciation and gratitude for the woman she had become.  It’s one thing to verbalize the wonderful things I see in her, but these were comments from people I had never met who were affirming her.  “You are my hero.”  “I want to be just like you.”  “You are the most authentic person I know.”  “Your character is above reproach.”  “You are the best example of a Christian I have ever met.”  “You have the skills to be the next provost of this school.”  There were 22 pages of comments that sang of her gifts and abilities as well as her character.  Very few comments were negative and of the negative ones, there were contradictions in the negative comments.

I am reminded of the verse in III John 1:4 “I have no greater joy than this; to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”  I had the privilege of hearing this from others as I read from the 360 evaluation.  On this journey you will have the opportunity to build on your own testimony of what God has in store for you.  This is not only about our future generation, but for this generation to impact the lives we come in contact with.  Carpe Diem.