Rite of Passage?

This is the season when "Pomp and Circumstance" is a common musical presentation as a host of robed individuals enter for the purpose of receiving a diploma.  This time is often considered a "rite of passage".  While it is true that graduates will be entering a new phase of their life, they are often surprised to find that the challenges ahead are often more daunting than the issues that they previously faced.

It seems like just yesterday that I graduated from Brandon High School in 1970.  I had planned to skip the entire procedure, but on this one occasion my mom was adamant that I participate and even ordered my graduation gown without my knowledge.  I am glad that she insisted since this moment began the process of reuniting a relationship with my dad.  We had not spoken for a number of years, but he came to see me graduate.  High School for me was a necessary step to get me to the next phase of life, but I certainly did not go forward with a true grasp of life.

Graduation from Providence Christian College in 1975 and subsequent graduation from Bethany Seminary were much more meaningful events, but even in these accomplishments I realized that the "rite of passage" from these institutions had not given me all I need.  I have come to the conclusion that education, although it is very important, merely teaches us how to learn.  Whoever has learned how to learn can grasp whatever is necessary to master in life.

During my college days, I observed that the students who thought they knew the most were the freshmen.  Each year these same students seem to get a little dumber until they realized in their senior year how truly ill equipped they were to face the challenges ahead.  I still remember at the beginning of a semester of "Systematic Theology", when a new student was in the class and was trying to take the professor to task, suddenly, he looked at his schedule and realized he was in the wrong class.  He had been assigned to "Basic Bible Doctrines", but he thought he had all of the answers.

This year, if you or a loved one, celebrates a graduation, then I congratulate you.  Although, you should keep in mind that you have merely finished a phase, you have not arrived.  All of life is a learning process and we will not master life, we will simply finish our course.  The Apostle Paul says it well, "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.  Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you." (Philippians 3:13-15).  Our goal should be to daily pick up our cross and follow Jesus until our life in the flesh is complete.

Keep on pressing toward the mark!