By Molly Eccles
“Is anybody here having doubts about this whole law school thing?”
That is the question that Regent Law alumna and solo practitioner Kerriel Bailey ('08) posed as she opened today’s Law Chapel service. The question was immediately followed by a collective chuckle from her audience of students and faculty. “I think,” she responded, “[we begin to doubt] when we are more focused on ourselves than on God.”
She then encouraged listeners to remember that “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable" (Rom. 11:29). Bailey, however, did not come to a true realization of this verse easily. She went on to share that when God called her to law school she “could not fathom learning the law at a place that did not even acknowledge a law Giver.” So she, her husband - who left his job of nineteen years – and youngest son packed their bags, said goodbye to the remainder of their family, and moved 3,000 miles from California to Virginia Beach.
Like so many students, she often wondered if she would fail, in which case she resolved that all she had given up and worked for would have been a waste. But God reminded her that even if she failed, and her life turned out differently than she expected, His call is irrevocable. “God does not waste anything.”
She went on to share of different Divine appointments that God has orchestrated in her two years since passing the Bar exam; opportunities that she could never have acted upon were it not for her Bar card; opportunities that have changed lives.
“And the great thing is that He does not ask you to wait until you are done [with school]. He is asking you to take those opportunities today. Life,” Bailey concluded, “is about those moments.”
“Is anybody here having doubts about this whole law school thing?”
That is the question that Regent Law alumna and solo practitioner Kerriel Bailey ('08) posed as she opened today’s Law Chapel service. The question was immediately followed by a collective chuckle from her audience of students and faculty. “I think,” she responded, “[we begin to doubt] when we are more focused on ourselves than on God.”
She then encouraged listeners to remember that “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable" (Rom. 11:29). Bailey, however, did not come to a true realization of this verse easily. She went on to share that when God called her to law school she “could not fathom learning the law at a place that did not even acknowledge a law Giver.” So she, her husband - who left his job of nineteen years – and youngest son packed their bags, said goodbye to the remainder of their family, and moved 3,000 miles from California to Virginia Beach.
Like so many students, she often wondered if she would fail, in which case she resolved that all she had given up and worked for would have been a waste. But God reminded her that even if she failed, and her life turned out differently than she expected, His call is irrevocable. “God does not waste anything.”
She went on to share of different Divine appointments that God has orchestrated in her two years since passing the Bar exam; opportunities that she could never have acted upon were it not for her Bar card; opportunities that have changed lives.
“And the great thing is that He does not ask you to wait until you are done [with school]. He is asking you to take those opportunities today. Life,” Bailey concluded, “is about those moments.”