THANKS | 18- Concordia Founder's Day

"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." 

~Henry Brooks Adams

"The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives."

~Robert Maynard Hutchins

"Education is not filling a pail but the lighting of a fire."

~William Butler Yeats

On this day in 1894 Concordia University, Seward Nebraska was founded. It was about this time in 1989 that I knew I had fallen in love with my wife there. It was about this time in 1990 when we got engaged. If Seward was just the place where I found the love of my life that would certainly be enough reason to give thanks for it. But an Alma Mater is a "nursing mother," the community or institution which takes you from your parents' arms and sets you on your course in life.

I have cohorts who have plenty of reason not to love our college and I understand and respect that. Like our own parents, colleges aren't perfect. They  make mistakes, you won't always agree with them, they may even hurt you. I have a friend who feels that Concordia provided an inadequate education, others who were wounded by administrative politics. But while I recognize that it is not perfect and is made up of a variety of people who are imperfect- my experience was generally positive.

I believe it is the people God placed there while I was there who He used to teach and guide me. So I would like to take today to thank God for those people who were at "Concordia Teacher's College" while I was.

Albert Einstein once said that "Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything one learned in school."

Here is just SOME of what has remained with me:

• Prof. Moulds- Don't take my word for it, look it up (especially in the Bible)
• Prof. Schmidt- True leadership is SERVANT leadership
• Doc Meyer- It's all about sifting through the BS to find the nuggets of truth
• Doctor Glaess- Life is all about choices, take responsibility for yours
• Doctor Vasco- If you're going to err, err on the side of grace
• Prof. Wolfram- God provides the wind, but we have to set sail and man the rudder
• Prof. Marxhausen- Always take a Sabbath and never take the same route home twice
• Prof. Dennison- Life (and democracy) is all about dynamic tension working to create balance
• Chaplin Mech- The Bible is full of imperfect people relating to God and beautiful poetry
• Doctor Krutz- Taught me to love writing
• Prof. Grothaus- One finds time to read
• Prof. Pfabe- God loves the poor and wants us to seek justice

And much, much more, from many more professors, support staff, classmates, and a variety of interlopers.