Torrey Academy, how I love thee!

Last night, I had the great honour of attending once again the Torrey Banquet.  Being surrounded by family and friends, being with those I had discussed and argued with all year long, meeting face to face those who before were only a colour and a font, a name without a background behind it, all these and more were blessings of the banquet.  

Congratulations to all who placed in the term paper contest!!!  Gabriel, your paper was amazing :)  Jonathan, I have to read yours.  Fellow FAT/FoOF winners, and to the Inklings winners, congratulations and I am honoured to stand in your company.  

Ahh, Torrey Academy, thou has been good to me.  From the first time I walked into Inklings, not knowing a soul and confident that I knew it all, to the final day of Foundations, rejoicing with classmates who had become friends, and learning with new humility, Torrey has been a journey of humility, of faith, of camraderie, of growth, of pursuit of goodness truth and beauty.  But most importantly, it has been a journey to find God.  Often I've lost sight of the ultimate goal, getting lost in the page long sentences of Locke, confusing theology of Williams, and late night reflection essays on Lewis and Lincoln.  But you my dear classmates and friends and tutors, never cease to bring me back and open my eyes anew to the wonder of God's holiness, wisdom, and love.  

This morning, I attended my younger sister's homeschool open house.  One of her classmates gave a dramatic recitation of the passage in Acts where Peter and John heal the lame man.  I had heard this story frequently, as all good Sunday School children have.  Today, however, I heard the story with a new understanding.  Too often we go through life begging for alms, asking for things, and in the case of Torrey, asking our tutors for the answers to hard questions, extensions or excused assignments.  We don't look up to glory and to God, but down at the papers to be written, books to be read, things to be done, and always ask ask ask.  But as Peter and John did, our tutors come along, and instead of giving us what we think we want, they command us, "Rise up and walk.  Take charge of your own education.  Own your beliefs.  Learn, think, grow."  They refuse to hand us the answers, but give us the strength to find the answers for ourselves.  And in doing so, our tutors point us up, ever higher, to God.  

Thank you, Miss Romero, Mr. Bartel, for your unfailing love for me.  Thank you for refusing to let me take the easy way out, but giving me the strength to look up to God.  Thank you, fellow classmates of Yorba Linda, for discussing with me and encouraging me and making this year such a memorable one.  Thank you, dear Torrey friends, for walking this journey with me.  

Thank you God, for Torrey Academy, which points me to you.  Soli Deo Gloria!