Do I agree with them all the time? Of course not. We are 15 separate human beings, of varying lives and faith. We each have our own story: one of how God got us to where we are now, whether we want to admit it or not. And now, our lives have met.
When I first moved to Boise, Idaho, for three months to pursue midwifery, I didn’t know what “living in” would be like. I had romantic dreams of leading sweet Bible studies, just like at home, or nightmares of that roomate that would ruin my life (just for three months, of course). I fantasized what college would look like, how we would work together and team up to make it all work.
And then the first day of classses rolled in.
I met 14 other ladies — some close to my age, some not — and it struck me: these are human beings. Fantasy and dreaming can only conjure up images of faceless, sweet, loving girls. Now, here they were for real. They’re all nice, all sweet, for sure, but, they’re all different. We all are. I’m different from all of them, just as much them as me.
This can be a beauty and a curse. I’ll admit, some people get homework done before me, and I hate seeing them having free time while I’m still slogging through the Cardinal Movements of Labor. But then, there are moments when one girl offers out of the blue to pray for my aching shoulder, still injured from a year’s ago soccer skirmish. We all do things differently, we all act differently, but we’re all together.
We’re all in this together. We encourage each other, we give each other resources in the endless hunt for clues as to how on earth you manage preterm labor effectively, and laugh as we crack up yet again about that darn Latin name that is impossible to pronounce.
I have met some incredible ladies, from all walks of the earth. All together, we may well have traveled the globe at this point, what with my jaunts to Nepal, and elsewhere, one girl’s tour of Europe, and another’s four month trip to Papua New Guinea and much more.
But there is one incredibly valuable lesson these ladies have taught me: To be who God made me to be. If that means standing up as someone says something unkind, remaining firm in my faith under the barrage of secular textbooks, or leading my life of faith away from my parents, I have learned to cling to what I believe.
And these girls and ladies have gotten me there.
At any point, I could walk away from the faith. Plenty of people do in college. No one would stop me, if that’s what I wanted, not even God. (Free will and all!) But God in turn has been so gracious as to surround me with women who trust and love His Name, that even if I had felt tempted to wander just a bit, they would have kept me in line.
We wrestle of course. We don’t all agree on how gay rights, abortion, racism, or genetic testing should be handled. But I have learned that just because I don’t agree with you on birth control, doesn’t make you any less human than me. If we love Jesus, and trust Him as our savior, there is nothing worth forsaking one another for. We are all still saved by His grace; I am a work in progress as much as the next sinner.
So, I have learned to stand on what I am convicted of, and to be gentle, kind, loving and generous with those who don’t hold my exact beliefs as their own. They are all beautiful, talented women, whom God has placed in my life for the here and now. And maybe it was for this: to help me learn how to weather the storms of life, how to handle disagreeing, when it comes. To help me realize that nothing makes you less a creation of God, no matter what. And, in the physical (but not spiritual) absence of my parents, I think God placed them here to help me shed my baby feathers, and spread my adults wings as I embark on this grand journey of life on my own.