Today, we, (The Lions Club) served breakfast to our Okmulgee High School graduating seniors. As I looked out at them, I couldn’t help but think, “They have no idea what is in store for them, or what their future will bring.” Not even their friends and teachers can imagine where life will take them.
If you had told me that I would visit all 50 states of our country, I probably would not have believed you. Nor would I have taken you seriously if you had said that I would live 13 years in a foreign country. That I would visit 15 foreign countries (not including the several others where we just landed to change planes), I wouldn’t have thought you were serious.
We think we know where we are going, but we don’t! We think we have a pretty good idea of what some of our school mates will do, but we don’t! I thought for sure that Sonja would go on to college and be a leader in our world. Why not, she always had the highest grades in our classes. Who would have thought that she would not go to college and would end up being a Ballroom Dancing teacher? Who would have thought that Gary and Mike would become School Principals in our district? Who would have imagined that Jim would become a pastor? I sure wouldn’t have!
Who we become after high school depends on a lot of different occurrences. Were we at all studious, liking to read – even if it was different from our required reading? What opportunities came our way, that opened doors that we never thought were available? Which people became influencers, or mentors to us? People we didn’t know we needed, but who completely changed the directions of our lives? So many possible occurrences and circumstances that we couldn’t have imagined when we were graduating.
In the Bible, in the book of James, he writes to some of the early Christians saying, “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (4:13-14).
We have no idea where life will take us after we graduate. How could I have ever conceived what would happen to my friend, Wayne. Several times, we journeyed down the railroad tracks together, going to the city library. How could I have known that he would die just a few years later? He couldn’t cope with what he experienced in Vietnam, became an alcoholic and died in a car crash after over-drinking.
In our futures, there is both sorrow and exciting adventure. We don’t know which will come first or which will be the more powerful. Whatever lies there in our future, it will best be faced if we listen to and practice Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:34. I love the way “The Message Translation” says it, “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”
– Just a Thought Dale Fillmore is lead pastor at New Day Church.
