Dear high school seniors,

It’s almost here! How do you feel? Nervous? Excited? So over it? Don’t worry, that’s how it was for all of us. The cornucopia of emotions your balancing and sorting through will all be worth it in the end. This time of your life is monumental. I remember my graduation so clearly. My last name starts with “A” so of course I was sitting on the very front row. I graduated in the massive Allen High School football stadium along with 1,400 other eager, and very sweaty, high school seniors. I remember looking to the left and seeing one girl looking particularly nauseous, then looking to the right and seeing another who looked so ready to officially graduate that she could hardly sit still. (Fair warning, if you go to a large high school and your last name starts with “A," get ready to have a long wait after you graduate. You’ll be sitting for a while). Be proud that you have made it this far. Soak it all up.

Anyways, this letter isn’t really about graduation day. It’s about these last few weeks. These last few moments. These last seconds. I know right now it seems like a millennium away, but once it’s over, you’ll look back and be shocked that you’re not headed back to your school for the next year. As you end your time in high school, take time to reflect on all that you’ve done, all of the things you’ve learned, you know, besides math. I mean the real stuff. Maybe you’ve learned to be kind to strangers or to stay calm in significantly stressful situations. Maybe it’s that even teachers can be wrong, but showing them respect even in your frustration reaps great rewards. I think the most important lesson I learned is that we really do live in a fallen world. God says in His word, “None is righteous. No, not one. None seeks after God” (Romans 3:10-11). In high school, watching my peers, as well as observing my own heart, I understood that living in a fallen world included not only 9/11 and the Holocaust, but all of the little things that we see every day. Things that I even did myself. Things like sharing homework answers, or gossiping about that girl that said something I didn’t like, or thinking mean thoughts towards people that had attitudes I didn’t like. All kinds of things that this world tells us is okay. I hated seeing people boldly claim their faith in Jesus Christ and then boldly touch a girl inappropriately in the hallway, or blatantly disrespect their teachers or throw out phrases that made them feel like big people. I hated the arrogance. I hated seeing people delight in people’s misfortune. I hated that I was sucked into having a heart that was sucked into this mentality. I hated that when I graduated high school, this wouldn’t change. There would still be people who would exhibit behaviors that made my heart hurt. I hated that I would still be surrounded by sin, including my own. High school taught me how fallen the world is. It also taught me that God’s grace is much bigger than I can fathom.

God taught me that He could make beauty from the ashes. He showed me through my own brokenness and my own sin that He is almighty God. That He sent His only son to live life as fully God, and fully man on Earth, tempted in every way that we are, yet without sin, to live a holy and perfect life, and to die on a cross a death that He did not deserve, paying the penalty for our sin. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2nd Corinthians 5:21). And Christ rose from the grave and is our Lord forevermore. He taught me that His love is enough. That He is my King. That in my brokenness, He still loves me. He taught me that nothing can pluck me from His hand (John 10:29). High school was probably the most trying, emotional and heartbreaking time of my life. In God’s sovereignty, He taught me perseverance and faith. My God is faithful. The trials that high school brought me were important for me to learn more of who God is, and whom God calls us to be as Christians.

In these last few weeks of high school, I’d challenge you to seek after God and take some time to reflect on what He has taught you through His Word and how He’s used that in your life. These weeks are precious. Live them fully. Live them humbly. Live them boldly. Live them. Absolutely live them.

Glory to God. He is Risen.