The Graduate

I remember graduation from LHS like it was yesterday. 507 gowns of the Lancaster High School class of '83 decorated the aluminum bleachers of the football field like blue and gold bunting. For me it seemed so unreal. For many years I had watched someone else move the tassle to the other side of their cap. Now it was me doing it and I could not believe it.

I am having a similar experience now. For many years now as a pastor I have attended the parties, endured the ceremonies, seen the graduates smiling ear to ear and the moms (and a few dads) weep. It was all something I observed but now I am experiencing. Like my graduation, the fact of my son Landon's graduation has not seemed real to me. But this Friday night the boy that I just took to kindergarten last week is going to be a high school graduate. I can't believe it.

Some people hate change--some people love it. Regardless of how you feel about change one thing is for sure: it is inevitable. There is no stopping what is happening in Landon's life. There is no rolling back the clock and experiencing his first step, T-Ball, or his 13th birthday again. There is only now. Today is all you have.

And that prompts me to tell you something as a person experiencing something for the first time. You will want to roll back time. You will wish you could more fully savor those moments from the past that you burned so easily. You will wish you could do it better this time benefitted by your complete understanding of its importance. But again, there is only today. What you have is based on what you did yesterday. But what you will have is based on what you will do today. Today is the only thing that matters for it is the only thing you can control.

Make the most of it, because one day the fact that yesterday is gone, that tomorrow may never come, and that today is all you have will literally 'hit home'. One day the kindergartener will be the graduate. I am so glad I have spent today well! Are you?

By the way don't miss Graduation Sunday this Sunday at 10:45. Graduates invite all your family and friends to come!