Commissioned

Last weekend was the commissioning ceremony for the new Resident Assistants at Biola University. Commissioning is about welcoming the new RAs into the Reslife community and publically acknowledging their future leadership.

For me, this ceremony marked the closing of two years of being an RA. As I lit the candles of the women who will lead Horton Fifth South during the 2009-2010 academic school year, I started to think about what this meant for me and how a change in leaderhsip should look. This tranfer of leadership means that next year Fifth South is no longer "my floor". It is not my place to critize a name change or a vision change or even individual events.

RA's tend to be territorial. It's understandable. We have poured our lives into a floor for a long year. Our hearts are engrained in the vision of the floor. Our sweat and blood (mine literally, due to shards of glass) were invested in the decorations. When it comes time to change RAs, some hold on to their floors and do not give the new RA's the space to develop a vision and floor name that they can get behind.

Part of finishing well means passing on the torch well. As my floor partner and I step down from our roles as RAs, I want to shift the focus from us to the new RAs. As I close out the year on High Five I want to prepare the girls who are staying on the floor to be accepting of the new leadership. I trust the wisdom of my RD and I know that she is putting the girls in good hands.

At the end of the ceremony, I respectfully blew out my candle not because I am done being an RA - I will always think about intentionality, seek out others to mentor and invest in, pursue whole person development and be kingdom minded - but I blew out my candle so that the new RA could be illuminated as the leaders of Horton.