GYC 2025: Seeing the Invisible

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

David Wright

Show Me Your Glory

I was 21, a theology major at Southern Adventist University.

My father was a senior pastor at the university church at the time.

I had returned from a year as a student missionary in Micronesia, and now apparently it was my mother's responsibility to arrange my marriage.

So on this particular Sabbath afternoon, they just so happened to invite some girls over for lunch.

When I got home from church, they just so happened to be in my parents' living room as my mother made the final preparations for lunch.

And it just so happened that I wasn't crazy about this idea.

So I successfully snuck upstairs to change clothes without even having to meet any of them.

I changed my clothes and distinctly remember just waiting upstairs, not wanting to go down and say hello.

I knew she'd be making faces and teasing and woo.

Nothing like a first date with the entire family.

I could only imagine my mother assigning me a place right in the middle of all these girls.

Well, for starters, you just don't go downstairs.

My little sister ran upstairs to tell me something I already knew.

Sure enough, the dining room table is spread out like it's Thanksgiving.

Fine china, the good silver, little name tags at every chair.

My older brother is there with his new wife.

They were married all of a year or so ago and I could hear my mother in my mind saying, now David, This is how you do it.

Connick is such a nice girl, and we think it would be nice if you could find somebody.

We just really worry about you being a single pastor." Mom, do you ever argue with your mom in your mind?

I go to class every day, I'm meeting people all the time, I'm not some monk living in some cave in the wilderness.

It just takes 1 and I'd rather be single my entire life than be married to the wrong one." I'm gonna pray for those of you who said amen really loudly.

There's still hope for your relationship.

Besides mom, I'm still arguing with her in my mind.

I don't think dating is the best way anyway.

It's there's all this pressure for the date and you put on your best and they put on their best.

And not to mention the fact that it's expensive just to figure out that, ugh, she's not the 1.

No, I'd rather just get to know them by hanging out in friend groups, getting to know them, observing them in various situations, how they respond to things, do they get upset easily, do they have a deep walk with God?

But I like to check the boxes more incognito.

That was the conversation in my mind as I came downstairs and and really what I was expecting Well, I have to admit I didn't have very high expectations.

I was thinking it was probably going to be nope, not likely, yikes, but you probably have a great personality.

But that wasn't what was waiting for me when I got downstairs.

They were all very nice, but there was 1 in particular that really caught my eye.

She had kind eyes, A sweet personality, a good sense of humor, and she appeared to be spiritual.

I mean, after all, this was just first impressions over a first lunch.

It's not easy to make a good first impression while having all these internal arguments with yourself.

Thankfully, it wasn't as awkward because of my brother that had it all together with his here's my wife to prove it there next to him.

But I knew I had to get to know this 1 girl better.

She had to run off to a concert that afternoon and to follow her seemed a bit desperate.

So off she went, but I just was thinking, how can I just bump into her somehow?

I was going to look for her in the cafeteria, maybe sit down next to her, maybe walk with her on the promenade, maybe try and hang out with her friend group, take a walk or go on a hike and just get to know her that way.

But time passed, week after week, month after month, And I never saw her at all.

Finally, near the end of my sophomore year, I saw her older sister, Emily.

And I sat with her group of friends for supper and I just said very casually, you know, after some conversation.

It's not the first thing out of your mouth, of course.

But my burning question was, where are your sisters?

I don't know if it's because our schedules were just too different.

She was in the nursing building and I was in the theology building.

They have since brought them closer together and then they built a new nursing building and put them far apart again I don't know I said well we should hang out let's get together okay and so we worked some things out we hung out a few times before the year ended I enjoyed my time with her I ended up getting her phone number I even tried to call her a few times over the summer, but we really hadn't established a very deep relationship before summer just messed everything up.

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Show Me Your Glory

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