What might have been

Saturday I went up to Yale University for a missions board meeting. Driving across the campus, I felt the strong pull of Yale, kind of like an old girlfriend you still have affection for. You see, I almost went there.

My life has been so tied up with Princeton that this is hard to believe. I lived there for the most formative 11 years of my life. My spiritual transformation, ministerial calling, and even church planting flowed out of my experience there. What might have been if I did not go there?

In 1974 I decided to attend Yale. After being accepted, I had a great overnight visit to the school, staying with students. But I went back and forth between there and Princeton. Finally I decided to go to Yale, and filled out the letter accepting their acceptance. I planned to mail it the next day in the mailbox at the end of my long street, when I walked our dog. But the next day it rained hard all day, and I never got to the mailbox. The following day I wasn't so sure about my decision. Finally, several days after the deadline, I reversed and mailed in the Princeton card, still unsure about the decision, but forced by time to do something. I wondered if it was right.

Did God cause it to rain in Mountainside, NJ, that fateful day in 1974? How would my life have turned out if I went to Yale? These sort of questions are the thing that we will learn in heaven.

But I enjoyed my fall day in New Haven this week!