I still remember my college dorm room. It has been over 30 years since I lived there, but I can still vividly recall every aspect of my room. By today’s standards it was small, simple, and maybe even stark. The walls were a pale green (calming, someone once told me), two twin beds, two closets, and one built-in chest of drawers with a mirror at the top. We had one giant window that opened overlooking the campus. Simple, yes, but perfect. Over the years, my various roommates and I would rearrange the space, place endless posters and décor on the wall, always with plasti-tak, so we didn’t harm those plaster walls.
When my mom and dad dropped me off my freshman year, I was so excited and a tad bit scared as well. I was so happy to have a new bedspread, towels, a mini refrigerator, and a slightly used, but new to me, IBM Selectric typewriter. As my mom was leaving, she said, “You will be a different person when you leave this room someday.” The wistful statement, perhaps offered as advice for college, didn’t resonate with me until I left four years later. The last time I looked in that room I thought, “I have changed.” I was moving off to Kansas and my first real job right out of college, I never moved home again.
Of course, I know it wasn’t the room that I lived in that changed me. The collective years of experience, growing independence, successes, and failures that helped build my confidence and resilience. I had changed from the timid freshman to a person who thought she was ready to take on something big. I was transformed by experiences in my dorm room but it wasn’t the room that changed me.
We hear so much about the significance of the Upper Room. When Jesus’ disciples entered the room, they may not have known their lives would be changed the way it was. The room where they shared the Last Supper and where Jesus washed their feet transformed their lives, but the room was important because of who was there. The real transformation for the disciples came about because of the time they spent learning, witnessing, and experiencing the love of Jesus Christ and what He told them during that final time together. I’m certain that the Upper Room symbolized a moment of change for each of them. They would always remember where they were when they had the Last Supper with Christ.
This Lenten season, think of a place that symbolized a transformation in your life. Think of the circumstances that helped guide you to that change. Thank God for places that remind us of the importance of change in our lives.
Lori Hall, Executive Director of Missions
