Returning to the Familiar

Since I was five or six years old, back in the mid-1960s, most summers have come with a dose of life at a small lake spanning the border between Quebec and Vermont. This summer was different only in that we traveled much farther to get here. After a year unlike any other for the Corey family, as we settled into life at Biola University and its Southern California context, we have returned for a family vacation to the familiar: a family cottage on Lake Wallace in the township of St-Hermènègilde, Quebec. This small French-speaking community sits a few hours east of Montreal. Life is simple here, even as I send this message through the delightfully slow dial-up service in a world where “high-speed” is a foreign term and cell phones sit unused, far from any relay tower.

Our neighbors tap their maple trees in the woods across the road during the annual run of sap that comes each spring, boiling it for hours in large vats until it thickens into delicious maple syrup. The boat I bought a few years ago from my cousin taxis us around the lake. Over the decades our neighbors have become family, and these lake visits provide yearly snapshots into their stories. Life sits quietly here with little that changes.

At night we gather around the large dining table built by a local craftsman and open up the game of Scrabble. Paula and I play alone if no one else wants to join us. Nothing to rush us through the deliberate pace of drawing new letters and rearranging them on the rack until the highest valued word comes into order. Often a piece of homemade raspberry pie and a cup of coffee sweetens our game. The berries are picked locally, but not the coffee beans. As I tap out these words this morning, the lake sits like glass and the children sit cross-legged on the floor playing a game of Life. Monopoly, on rainy days eats up hours of their time.

It is Sabbath-like. Though far from Los Angeles (the new home of our erstwhile Red Sox left fielder Manny Ramirez!), we think often of our new community at Biola which for us is less new but no less desirable as the days pass. This break from the pace of university leadership has been a gift. I've logged long runs but logged-on less. I've read each day and taken on some household chores. Paula and I have walked and talked, catching up on life and ramping up for the coming year. During these days on the side of a lake, I am thankful for the gift of family.

With thanks to the Lord, our children have adjusted well to California. They have friends, good schools and loving parents. We have had some times when they missed New England terribly, but those days seem to be diminishing. They text to keep in touch. Ella is social and has a wide swath of friends. Anders is content with a few friends to hang out with. Sam still enjoys his parents and siblings, demanding very little in terms of social life outside of the home. Paula has been an extraordinary mother this past year, handling both the complexities of raising our children and organizing their new life here (orthodontics, music lessons, schools, play dates, sports, etc.). She has amazingly transitioned our children into young Californians through careful parenting, good listening and firm mothering. After a year in local Christian schools, Ella and Sam will begin public schools in Fullerton in August. Anders will be a sophomore at Whittier Christian High School. We continue to pray that their young hearts would be sensitive to the Spirit's work in their life.

Paula more than ever is my source of strength and stability, wisdom and freedom. This past year has been a major adjustment for her, especially as it relates to the slow process of settling into a home. She has almost single-handedly worked through the renovation of our Fullerton home, which was far more demanding than we thought (but equally as demanding as everyone said it would be!).

As I have pressed the pause button during this family time away, I have tried also to attune my heart to the voice of the Lord. My prayer is that I would become more like Jesus in conduct and character as the years go by, drawing strength from my relationship with the Lord and loving Him and His Word more and more from the depth of my soul. In this journey there are both mountaintops and valleys. I find my need for the presence of God in my life in ever more desiring ways than even before.

Here at Lake Wallace, where life is a rest area and priorities begin to regain their place, I have enjoyed long conversations with my friend Dan from Ottawa. Dan and I grew up together here, spending summers as brothers (we're actually distant cousins) and tracking life together. Best men in each other's weddings many years ago, our relationship has only strengthened over the years. Dan and his wife Kathy have children the same ages as ours, so our lives have tracked closely even with our families.

Back in November, Dan and about a dozen other friends joined me at the presidential inauguration weekend. After those days together, he organized a bi-weekly email to friends who have covenanted to pray for me in this new role. I am profoundly grateful for Dan and these friends, and during these vacation days I have reflected even more on the gift of family and friendships. The following is what my “brothers” have called the 16x16 guide: sixteen guys who are regularly praying over me in sixteen areas:

1. For the incredible friendships with the guys the Lord has placed in my life to be protected and strengthened
2. Daily surrendering of self to Christ
3. Discipline of daily reading and prayerful reflection and journaling
4. Sensing the moral weigh of God's Word in guiding my life and decisions
5. Humility
6. Wisdom, wisdom and more wisdom
7. Purity of thought and deed
8. Physical health and the discipline to maintain it
9. Guidance, Vision, ears to hear, that God would continue to speak loud and clear for the future of Biola
10. Family health, protection, ample time together
11. To honor and cherish our Paula above all others
12. Children who grow even stronger in their faith than I am
13. For the Board of Trustees and their guidance
14. Patience for God's timing
15. A harmony and energy of Biola's leadership, faculty and staff
16. Students to be influenced, impacted and activated for Christ in ways they have not yet experienced through the work of the Holy Spirit

Next week we five fly back to California and move into our home after a year of renting. We look forward to what God will do in and through Biola in the coming year and years. Absence has only made our Biola heart grow fonder.

Here, praying for a wonderful 2008-2009 academic year as we welcome back our returning students, and welcome for the first time, in just a matter of days, about 1,200 new undergraduate students and many graduate students to the community of Biola University. May God bless them in this leg of the journey.

Blessings to you.

In Christ,

Barry H. Corey

August 7, 2008