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• W. Wayne Gardner
  President
  Toccoa Falls College

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Saturday, March 7, 2009 was Beautification Work Day at Toccoa Falls College. My wife and I met over 125 students, faculty and staff at the pond to clean up the old liner that had been in place for several years.  We spent the next few hours cutting, hauling and dumping the plastic material into the dumpster which had been brought to campus for such a job.  The president of the alumni association and a trustee also arrived to be a part of the event. 

The work was tiring but rewarding.  At the end of the day we were able to have almost three-fourths of the liner removed.  While working on this project I walked around the pond, over the dam near where the diving boards were placed in years gone by.  And there I stopped and looked down toward the creek.  Memories flooded back to my mind about my student days back in 1966 – 69 when some of the boys would “sneak out” of Forrest Hall and jump in the pond and swim over to the island which was in the middle of the pond.  We were the “TFC Polar Bear Club” and it didn’t matter how cold the temperature was, we jumped in and swam across.  We thought very little about it being against the rules at that time.  We only thought that it was a great thing to do.  No one was hurt and nothing was damaged.  It was fun and somehow we never were caught.

As those thoughts went through my mind I also remembered those days when we had separate times for men and women to swim but how, before school officially started, we could swim together.    I remembered the good times we had at this old pond which provided recreation to the students of TFC.  It was just a sandy or muddy bottom swimming hole that we thought was the best in the world at that time.  We didn’t require much to have fun back in those days.

As I day dreamed about those “good ole days” my mind went to Jeremiah 6: 9 – 18 where Jeremiah deals with the last 40 years of Judah as a nation.  In verse 16 I find a wonderful little verse which says, “Thus says the Lord, Stand in the way and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is and walk in it, then you will find rest for your souls.”  That was a warning to Judah and they would not listen.  It came as an admonition to me to remember from where I have come, the old paths and the good ways, and walk in them and I will find rest for my soul.  Too often we discard the old and desire the new.  But I am sure that as you remember the past, stand on that as a firm foundation we will find rest from the Lord. 

It is wonderful to remember the good ways and today, as we walk in the way that Jesus Christ has for each of us we will find rest.  Just try it, sit down in a familiar place and remember the good things that happened there and place a marker in your life as to what Jesus did for you at that time and how today the Lord can do so much more because of those wonderful events of the past.  Try to “stand in the way and see, and ask for the old paths, which never change, seek the good way of Jesus, and you shall find rest for your soul.”  Our methods may change but our foundation of faith will never change when grounded in Jesus Christ our Lord.

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