Spent a few hours tonight at Wendell’s graduation. Anyone have any fun highschool graduation stories? At any rate, as I watched this graduation, I was struck by two conflicting thoughts running through my head: 1) “Graduation…big deal. Yay….” and 2) “This IS in fact a huge deal for many of these kids – for some of these kids, they may be the first of their family to graduate from high school – this is IN FACT huge!” I take for granted my privileged white-maleness, and how easy everything came to me, growing up in a small, middle-class community – of course everyone graduates from high school. But…not everyone does. And some of these kids, one I know in particular, had to work their butts off to make it through…Thank you God, for your provision and patience with these students…
This is Miguel and I. Miguel started coming to our youth group for about 6 months last year – we had some great conversations – he is hilarious. He stopped coming to youth group, but he and I would always talk at the high school when I would see him every week when I came for lunch. Totally one of those big teddy-bear types of guys – he has a great heart. I got to know his mom and aunt as I would always drive by their house, wave and talk with them. Tonight, when I walked into graduation, I immediately saw his mom and she was excited to see me there. After graduation, they were all crying, and I snapped this shot with Miguel, gave him a graduation gift (a beautiful Duo-tone Italian leather NIV Bible from Zondervan…;) and a copy of my worship CD) and he expressed a heartfelt gratitude. I talked to his aunt after that, and she thanked me for the profound effect I had on Miguel’s life. What a way to end my 2 yrs here in Wendell. Thank you God for using me when I wasn’t really aware of it…
As I stepped outside the gym, it had just rained (and so it had that amazing just-rained smell) and the sky was gorgeous and people were celebrating and I gave my buddy Derek a ride home and had to snap this shot. Thank you God for showing yourself to me through the beauty of Idaho. Thank you God for giving me peace tonight while I’m stressing about so many little insignificant things. Thank you God for simply being who you are…a God who could make what could have been a boring evening at a graduation, a true gift from yourself…