Yesterday was a fine day at school. In the morning, we had a Chapel speaker who has cerebral palsy. She spoke from her wheelchair, and she did have slurred speech. The great thing is that she loves God and loves to talk about him, even with the disease she has. So, even with her trouble talking, she is now a professional speaker, and has been to five countries, even though she cannot drive. She was funny, animated, and engaging, and you could have heard a pin drop (except when we were laughing at her jokes). What a fantastic speaker. She pointed out that we all have disabilities before God, and so we need him. She also said that for awhile she wanted a “normal” life, but God showed her to want more. She said that if you aim for a normal life then that is all you will get, and we should be extraordinary for God. She was amazing.

Later in the day, our school carved out time from academics to host a basketball game for the Broadmoor School, a MRDD school near Cleveland. The entire school went to the gym, and we had a full contingent of raving fans, cheerleaders in uniform and the pep band playing, and we were all pulling for the Broadmoor Bobcats. I went, not knowing what to expect, and I ended up never caring so much for a basketball game in my life. The Bobcats did win (I think the score was 36 to 28). Our students went absolutely nuts for the Bobcat team. They cheered madly every time a basket was scored, led cheers of “We are the mighty mighty Bobcats,” cheered wildly when one of the Broadmoor students danced for the crowd, and chanted “De-fense De-fense!” many times when CVCA had the ball. What was also neat was we had one or two Broadmoor students playing for CVCA, and one of our students played for the Bobcats.

I am proud of our students, and I am proud of the administration and faculty for supporting this event, and I am proud of the Bobcats who played so very hard. I choked up several times during the game. I remember one of the Broadmoor students almost made a basket several times (including one that rolled agonizingly around the rim), and I remember thinking, “Please, God! Let him score!” I do not remember now if he did, but I was pulling hard for the Bobcats.

One of the very basic things Christians are supposed to do is to love. Our students did that yesterday – they genuinely loved the Broadmoor students. They showed them the respect and dignity that people deserve, and I am very proud of the kids for that. There was just good will and genuine love for the Broadmoor students (even to the point of booing one of the CVCA students who actually scored a CVCA basket!).

One of the great perks of working at a school is getting to be around young people. One of the great perks of working at a Christian school is getting to see the love of God at work in young people.

Yesterday was a very good day.