Make the Most of It by Barry H. Corey

Author:Barry H. Corey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: RELIGION / Education, EDUCATION / Student Life & Student Affairs
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Published: 2020-03-02T16:00:00+00:00

[16] Melissa Korn, “Failure 101: Colleges Teach Students How to Cope with Setbacks,” Wall Street Journal, updated December 19, 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/failure-101-colleges-teach-students-how-to-cope-with-setbacks-11545129000.

[17] Eugene H. Peterson, The Message (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2018), Romans 8:28.

[18] Theodore Roosevelt, The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses (New York: The Century, 1902), 4.

CHAPTER 14

Reach Out to Strangers

Justin Bieber was waiting with the missus, Hailey, outside the Montage Beverly Hills hotel when I was working on this book. Standing there that night, I heard him break into song and dance inspired by Marvin Gaye’s 1980s hit, “Sexual Healing.” His serenading started off directed at Hailey, but then he pivoted and belted out the lyrics for a handful of valet attendants and then to me. Justin Bieber had some special thing connecting with people that night. To him, though, I was a stranger. And to me, he was a stranger.

It was while I was waiting for my car and wondering who he was that he extended his arm my way. I thought, Why not? as I reached back. That reach became a clasp, and that clasp became a hug, and that hug became a selfie. I still didn’t know who he was until someone hollered, “Hey, Justin!” Out of touch, I thought he must be Justin Timberlake. It wasn’t until later when I told the story to my wife that she guessed my encounter was with Justin Bieber, not Justin Timberlake.

The paparazzi caught it all on video and released it the next day on TMZ. I was glad I reached back when he reached out. It’s what we need to do. (I was also glad I didn’t sing along.) We need more reaching out in our world, people reaching out to strangers and strangers reaching back.

Understanding what it means to reach out to strangers was far more life-shaping the day I landed in Bangladesh as a study-abroad student in my twenties than the day I landed in Justin Bieber’s world as a university president in my fifties.

Here’s what I wrote in my journal the day I arrived on foreign soil, a nervous student trying to find my way in the world and looking for a global plunge to test my soul’s mettle:

When the plane touched down and we walked the steps to the tarmac, it hit me that this was my home for the next year. And I wasn’t particularly thrilled. . . . I began to feel both sick and afraid. Everything was so strange and I couldn’t believe all of these people were sharing the same world as I was. When I passed through the luggage inspection, I was closer to the door and could see even more closely those faces crowded outside. I pretended to be all right. I wasn’t. I did not want to go outside. I pushed the luggage cart toward the doors I feared, not looking up from the ground knowing how conspicuous I must be. As I walked outside, I was smothered by men who wanted to carry my bags for a few coins.

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