I heard "the story" again last night.

​I heard "the story" again last night.

Let me digress for a moment. All of us who work at and support York College believe strongly in our mission. At times, however, when you get busy preparing for Board meetings, representing YC on local and state boards, attending national meetings, you tend to get distracted. It is interesting in these settings that no one asks "how are your students doing spiritually." They will ask, "how is your enrollment." or "how are you doing financially." If you are not careful, these can become the measures of success rather than our mission of transforming lives. While none would disagree that enrollment numbers are important or that ending the year in the black is a worthy milestone, but they are probably not the markers God is using to determine the success of York College.

​Last night at Wednesday night devo, a young man talked about how, through high school and two years of community college, he had been growing in a relationship with God, but lacked focus and direction. He decided to transfer to York because it is "Christian" and to play baseball. He said that now he understands why God led him here. Before he was trying to "do" religion and spirituality on his own, with varying degrees of success. In the months he has been here he has decided to let God lead his spiritual direction, and his life is being transformed.

As one example, he previously never would have considered getting up in front of 100 or so students and talking about his faith and his relationship with God. He was encouraged to do that because "God is everywhere here." He has been set free to explore God in ways he never thought of before (to paraphrase of one of his points) in a setting where others support him and care about him.

I am glad the story is still happening at YC. It is my story as well as that of hundreds of others who found a deeper and more meaningful relationship with our God on this campus.

Yes, we will still try to grow enrollment. Yes, we will endeavor to balance the budget.

More importantly, we will strive to keep "the story" alive and well at York College.

Go Panthers!