i’m not one of those people that particularly enjoyed high school, it wasn’t that it was a horrible experience or anything like that.  rather, it’s one of those experiences that i’d rather not spend the rest of my life revisiting.  for the observant, you can already see my dilemma forming before your eyes (watch out though, there’s a twist at the end).

since moving back to my hometown everywhere i go i’m met on a regular basis with the possibility of running into old classmates and those that i attended high school with… whether out to eat, at the grocery store, at church, anywhere.  for some people this is an exciting prospect, a way to either shove their success in one of their faces, or to reconnect for the sake of reconnecting.  for me, this isn’t something that i particularly enjoy… 

it’s always an awkward experience running into people from high school, especially those that made it their duty to make your "formative years" all the more difficult.  you have to act like you care about how their lives are going and how they are doing today when in the back of your mind your either seething with anger or filled with discomfort and at the same time thinking of any sort of excuse to end the conversation. 

tracy and i recently bought a house and have finally gotten everything moved in (but not yet completely in place).  while preparing to move in we did a great deal of painting and a great deal of cleaning.  one evening after painting a room i made my way into the backyard to clean out the paint tray and the paint rollers when i looked up and on the deck of the house behind our new house stood an old classmate… he lives there.  now, this wouldn’t have been the most terrible of prospects except that this is one of those guys in high school that was one of the biggest jerks you could ever come across.  needless to say, we didn’t really get along all that well.

of all the houses in decatur that we could buy, of all the places we could end up in this city we end up next door to him.  you’ve got to be kidding me right?  my high school wasn’t that big (800 or so), and he’s only one person… and now he’s my neighbor.  what in the world!

so, after thinking about it for a few days i must begin to wonder if maybe there’s a purpose for this…  maybe it’s for me to learn a little bit more about forgiveness, a little bit more about love, and grace, and living in the way of Jesus.  maybe it’s an opportunity for me to truly live in a missional way amongst my neighbors, something i admittedly have never done very well…  whatever the purpose or purposes, i’ll look forward to seeing how things come out on the other side.

Related posts:

1. 5 year old arrested at school
2. sick of being sick
3. Pregnant Teens…
4. home sweet home
5. It’s Time To Party.

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