Congratulations seniors!! Today is your day- you made it! I’m sure by now you’ve all received Dr. Seuss’s “Oh the Places You’ll Go,” eaten lots of cake, shared pictures, reminisced on the beginnings of high school, said good-bye to the halls of your high school, and are dreaming about the future. You deserve it! Today, we want to honor your hard work and effort. We want you to know that you will always have a church home here. I was thinking back to my high school graduation and I remembered how I thought the summer wouldn’t go fast enough. I was ready to move to school and get started in college. But take a minute to enjoy your last summer vacation. It’s easy to get really wrapped up in the planning of the future. You’ll find this to be true for every new stage of life you enter. You feel restless and ready to move on. You are dissatisfied with where you are and wanting to hurry up and get to that next chapter. This will happen a lot over the course of your life. And for a minute, I want to put on the hat of life experience and give you one little piece of advice that I have learned in the midst of my transitions in life: don’t hurry through them, for most often, your most valuable life lessons will come in the tension of waiting. As uncomfortable and irritating it can be to wait, there is so much to learn there. Don’t hurry through the transition. Let yourself linger in the moment. Because you’ll realize looking back, how fast the time actually went. And you’ll realize that you won’t ever get it back. Take the time to really appreciate and talk with your parents, because your relationship with them is transitioning from kid into adult. Take time to still make memories with your high school friends because you’ll treasure those. I still get together with my best girlfriends from high school every year for a Christmas dinner… we just had our sixth annual Christmas party and live all around the country, but we’ve made it a priority and it is so special to us.
The same lesson applies for those of you who aren’t graduating, but sitting there thinking how you wish you were. Don’t hurry through high school. Make the most of it. Enjoy not having to pay rent or pay to do your laundry! Enjoy having a home-cooked meal every now and then. Enjoy your vacations! Make the most of your summer! Get involved with things that will create meaningful memories. Most of all, never forget to look for the little ways that God is reminding you that you are exactly where you need to be.
See God in your transitions and in your waiting. Recognize that God has a plan for you and it will happen in God’s timing. Make the most of every moment.
Jeremiah 29:11-13
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
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