Thank you so much, Cornerstone family, for supporting our seniors this past Monday and Tuesday as they presented their Capstone Projects. The auditorium was overflowing both nights, and our seniors felt blessed that so many of you chose to be there.

As you might imagine, in my English classes with my juniors and seniors (and our beloved 10th grade infiltrator, Timon Angerhofer), we discussed what we had seen and heard the nights before. The seniors seemed humbled by the experience, aware of God's work in them and in us because of it. Class on Wednesday was nothing short of precious, as these seniors opened their hearts to one another regarding the projects. The juniors, of course, are looking forward to next year, when each of them will take the podium, and so our conversation was more along the lines of "What will we do?"

As I tried to encourage new ideas, I mentioned that if I were a senior, I would try to blog to change the world for my Capstone Project, to which Jack Gregory, bless his heart, said, "That is one senior project I would NOT want to sit through." He then demonstrated how he would exit the auditorium when I arrived at the podium to speak on blogging.

OK. I respect that. If I were his classmate, I would immediately be thinking of another, more exciting way, to change the world. I don't know, maybe by playing videogames to save the world? ...

But then this morning, as I was about to enter the spinning room at the health club, I saw my friend Terry, the Boston marathon runner who escaped injury by five minutes.

She called me over to her, saying, "I read your article about me."

Oh. Ooops. When I wrote that blog post for our Moodle site, I thought I was encouraging our Cornerstone families. It turns out that Terry has a friend at Cornerstone, who recognized Terry was the woman I meant and passed the article to her. Terry said she read it once, thinking that the story sounded just like hers and noted how funny it was that the girl I was discussing also was named Terry. Then she read it again, realizing it was about her, and chills ran down her spine.

She told me this morning that reading my post made her realize that God had a reason for saving her life, not just her legs, in the blasts that rocked Boston. Knowing her life has a purpose is changing how she is living. She was so touched by the article that she has been forwarding it to everyone in her office and her various friends. My blog has gone viral. (OK. Slight exaggeration.)

I was so excited by what Terry told me that spinning seemed easy today. It was a little scary to think that my words reached Terry and to think that they are extending so far outside my Cornerstone family without my knowledge. But it is more exhilarating than scary. I don't go around orally sharing Jesus wherever I go, but I feel much bolder sharing my faith using the written word. Maybe I can change the world by embracing the passion God has given me for writing!

If you were at the project presentations this week, I imagine you left inspired to do something different. Maybe you left inspired to change the world.

I hope that you won't wait for your Capstone Project to begin working with God to change the world--especially if you're my age and won't get that assignment!

Our Lord's words, from Exodus 6:1, as recorded in Hannah Hurnard's Hinds Feet on High Places, keep pressing on my heart. God says, "Now thou shalt see what I will do." (And, yes, Ryan Felton, I know the verse refers to when God tells Moses to watch what he will next do to pharaoh and that this isn't biblical doctrine. But it does show God's heart and His character. I know He is still at work here and now...)

And I am watching excitedly.

Capstone Projects

Monday, April 29, and Tuesday, April 30

Cornerstone Academy Auditorium

6 p.m.

When I attended Cottey College in Nevada, Missouri, my first two years of college, multiple times a day I focused on these words, "In All Thy Ways Acknowledge Him." Those were the words inscribed along the roofline of Cottey's chapel, a building I faced as I crossed the road from the academic building to my dormitory (at the only stoplight in town at the time). Those words daily reminded me to give glory and honor to God in all I did.

Fast-forward a couple years (or decades). Within the month, our Cornerstone Class of 2013 will cross from our campus into the big, wide world--focusing on these words, "To God be the glory, great things He hath done," our theme for graduation. They begin this crossover Monday and Tuesday, April 29 and 30, by presenting their Capstone Projects (starting at 6 p.m. each evening).

These seniors, more then any other Cornerstone Academy graduating class as a whole, have chosen Capstone Projects that can change the world--and bring glory  to God through the process. Each has researched and written and experienced (and written some more) on a topic of choice, each project unique, each project designed to impact the world in some way.

The projects include mentoring the young and ministering to the elderly; taking to the streets on foot, on motorcyle, or on a dare; walking dogs, smacking volleyballs, singing like an angel, and even one senior becoming something she was not--all to bring awareness to a need. Most of these seniors have stepped out of their comfort zones and found themselves changed as they determined to change the world.

They will step out of their comfort zones once again as they present their experiences in their Capstone Project presentations. Won't you join us this Monday and Tuesday night to both support them and be inspired?