OFFICIAL NOTICE


that was only the first. Boom! Boom! said the black sky, and the lightning looked like spiders’ legs. “Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” Now the tree bowed deeply and rose hugely. The wind sucked my shirt up to the back of my neck, and the rain hit like BBs, and I felt my arms slipping. “Daddeeee!”


And there he was! He stood framed by the back door.


“Here! Out here! Up here in the


tree! Daddy, come get me!” I rode the tree like riding huge waves on the ocean. He saw me and came out. I felt


relieved because I knew he’d climb up and carry me down. But that wasn’t his plan at all. He


came to a spot right below me and lifted his arms and called, “Let go.” “What?” “Let go of the branches, Wally. I’ll


catch you,” he said. Let go? I had a crazy man for a


father. He was a half mile below me. He had hot dog sticks for arms. If I let go, I’d hit the ground and die. “No!” I screamed. At least I could


feel the bark against my body. I made up my mind and shut my eyes. I would stay right here until the storm had passed.


But a greater rush of wind bent the


tree backward and cracked my limb at the trunk. I dropped a foot. My eyes flew open. I didn’t shout. I was terrified.


Then the wood whined and splin-


tered and the limb sank, and so did I. ... No, I didn’t jump. Nor did I choose to let go. In spite of myself, I fell. In that swift, eternal instant I thought, this is what it’s like to die. But my father caught me. And my father squeezed me to himself. I wrapped my arms around him and felt the scratch of his whiskers on my face and began to cry. He caught me. My father, indeed—the man with


the strongest arms in the world. • • •


Here is the meaning of that sum-


mer’s event: The kid didn’t really know the strength of his father’s arms, not until he had actually experienced it. Nor could he experience it until he had no choice but to let go and fall. Therefore, all the boasting he’d done earlier was nothing but words and pretense. He thought he believed, but he didn’t really believe—not to the point of trusting himself completely to his father’s strength. Faith came in spite of himself.


Even so do we cling to our ideal-


ized view of the world, or to pious words of faith, not to the genuine thing itself, not truly to Jesus. And then the storm hits. The storm is anything that threatens us, assaults us, turns our living into a helpless, hopeless dying. Against the storm we finally experience our perfect weakness. Within ourselves we do not have the resources to survive—to survive this grief, or this guilt, or this failure to make it in an unjust world. We can do nothing, and to do nothing means to let go of all the things that have proved empty. We fall. Now we are prepared for the


reversal. When, next, we do not die (when the morning comes after all, and we, to our astonishment, find ourselves able to respond to sunlight, to the birdsong we had thought we had lost forever) we find life in the least of its expression. We experience the morning. It isn’t a dogma. It isn’t a catechetical quote. Likewise, we have experienced the truth of the comfort and the love of God. This is no longer a pretense, no longer boastful words alone. It is trust. We trust our God. We have fallen wholly on the bosom of the Christ.


And what is such trust? Faith. M


TO : W ar tbur g C ollege C or por a tion M embers FROM: Wartburg College Board of Regents


BACKGROUND: The Wartburg College Articles of Incorporation require that amendments of the Articles must be rati- fied by the Members of the Corporation. The Board of Regents approved certain amendments to the Articles on February 19, 2011, and those amendments will be presented for ratification at the Corporation meeting held during the August 2011 ELCA Churchwide Assembly.


REQUESTED ACTION: The Wartburg College Board of Regents requests that the following amendments to the Articles of Incorporation be ratified by the Members of the Corporation:


ARTICLE 5.2(C) MEMBER COMPOSITION


(c) The Executive Director of Vocation and Education Unit of the Church with responsibility for relation- ships with colleges of the Church,


ARTICLE 6.2.1(A) AND 6.2.1(B) BOARD COMPOSITION/MEMBERS


(a) Persons elected to the Board. The elected members of the Board shall in- clude two (2) Bishops of the Church. Such Bishops shall be (i) from differ- ent states or (ii) from different Regions of the Church; however, at least one such Bishop shall be from a synod of the Church in the State of Iowa.


(b) The following persons who serve as ex officio voting members of the Board during the years in which they hold their respective elected positions:


(i) Pr esident of the College .


(ii) The Executive Director of Vocation and Education Unit, or the Director for Colleges & Universities, or another A rep- resentative designated by the Church.


(iii) Two (2) Bishops of the Church. Such Bishops shall be (i) from different states or (ii) from different Regions of the Church; however, at least one such Bishop shall be from a synod in the State of Iowa.


(iii) T he P r esiden t of the Wartburg College Alumni Board.


(iv) The President-Elec t of the Wartburg College Alumni Board.


(v) The Chair of the advisory group known as the President’s Advisory Council.


June 2011 29


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