New Church Life July/August 2017 | Page 47

    and truth. For example, I’ve had great satisfaction from serving on the Board of Trustees of the Academy of the New Church, the parent institution of Bryn Athyn College. I always had a love for the school, but after I graduated and moved away, I wasn’t all that involved. Then, about seven years ago, I received a call asking if I would join the Board. It wasn’t terribly convenient: I had a new baby and lived thousands of miles away. But I was worried about how the schools were doing – I knew that they were running large deficits and I didn’t see how that was going to stop – so I took a deep breath and thought that if I wanted all the good things about the schools to continue it was time for me to step up. It was time to combine into a use my knowledge about schools and law (and my willingness to buckle down and learn a bunch of other stuff) with my love for the school. I’m not going to claim any of the credit for what has happened at Bryn Athyn College and the rest of the Academy over the past seven years. But I am so proud of what the faculty, administration, donors, leadership and students have accomplished. And I hope that my service on the Board and advice on legal matters have helped. In reading about good and truth, I looked at Arcana Coelestia. In number 2258, Swedenborg writes that Divine truth is judgment and Divine good is mercy. Reading this took me back to living in New York after 9/11. I was lucky – even though my office was very near the World Trade Center, I didn’t lose anyone I knew at the towers. But it was still an unsettled, disturbed time for the whole city. Like most New Yorkers, I wanted there to be something I could do to help, but there wasn’t really that much. I spent some time at the big assistance center at pier 94, helping people fill out requests for death certificates. I figured that lawyers can help with forms, although I had second thoughts when they told us during training that we absolutely could not cry. (“Not crying” is not really part of my core skill set.) The assistance center was an incredible example of what can happen when you combine good and truth – so many people combining their love for their neighbors and their knowledge of how to provide help created an amazing resource for people. Anyway, one of the things that was off-kilter was that the subways weren’t running like usual, and I ended up taking a car downtown Even when things have gone very wrong, I believe that using truth and good to walk humbly with your God will lead you to use and happiness. 317