Congratulations to all of our high school graduates!
My daughter graduated from Waynesboro High School last weekend. As a parent, I have thought quite a bit about the experiences of our young people, and the world they are coming to inherit. We start with a part of their lives we are all tired of: the coronavirus pandemic. There is a great photo exhibit at the Shenandoah Art Center right here in Waynesboro done by a Waynesboro High School senior that shows the effect of the coronavirus on the year of a student. Uncertainty is one of the words that comes to mind. A colleague of mine the other day used another psychological term he learned that is being used about the effects of the coronavirus on our lives: languishing. We are able to function, do our tasks, but those things that give us joy are more elusive because of the looming concerns of the day. I give thanks we appear to be approaching a greater degree of normalcy, for the sake of our youth. Ironically, one of the things we (often unfairly) accuse our youth of is a dependency on technology (as if we are not!). At the same time this past year has shown us both the benefits and the liability of technology. It has allowed our children to continue learning, and to continue in some way to be connected, but it has also revealed how important being face to face is. In our Christian faith, one of our two celebrations of the Church year, Christmas, is focused on the fact that in order to reconcile the world to God’s self, God came to earth Incarnate — in person — through Jesus Christ. Zoom has allowed us to continue to do many things, but we have missed much in not being together. We have become more used to, and dependent on technology. And what we are able to do with technology continues to amaze. I read an article the other day on how three manufacturers in the world make 80% of the microchips used in phones, computers and things like automobiles. The facilities they are manufactured in cost billions, the chips are made of wafers that are cut by lasers, making “cuts” 5 microns thick, 1/16th the size of a human hair. I think of my mother who remembers the first car her parents got, and their first tractor, using horses and buggies before that. Now, there is a machine that etches silicon chips for the cell phone I use that has thousands of times the capacity of the first computer I bought out of college 35 years ago, which itself was considered a marvel, able to a hundred times what took a room of tubes and wires the size of a house to do just 60 years ago. My daughter and others going to college, technical schools, entering the world of work or joining the military are entering a world that is changing quickly. It changed radically during my last 43 years beyond high school. It will change radically again. There are significant problems. Our vulnerable dependence on technology was revealed last week when a gas pipeline was rendered useless because hackers gained control of it. Pollution, climate change, fundamental disagreements about the future of our nation abound. There are a few individual American citizens who personally have more net worth than multiple nations containing millions of people. We continue to reckon with our past in this nation, and how we treat one another. What can we tell our daughters and sons as they graduate? Psalm 71 is a beautiful prayer, written by someone who has experienced much in life. The writer talks about achievement, defeats, of much joy, of the depths. There is a sense that the writer is considering all of his or her life as he or she writes. There is a simple prayer which I encourage our youth to pray in this time of graduation and the beginning of looking ahead to what is next: For you, O Lord, are my hope; my trust, O Lord, from my youth (Psalm 71:5) And then this look from the writer’s current age of many years later: O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. This time of life, graduation from high school, is often spoken of as a time when we stand on our own two feet, when we “spread our wings and fly,” leaving the nest, all the ways we speak of assuming more responsibility for one’s daily journey. It is at this time to remind our youth of the deep well they can draw from when they do this; God, who is our source of trust, hope, love. Congratulations, graduates, and may God guide you in all that is ahead.
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AuthorPastor Paul came to Grace to serve as our Pastor in October 2012. After a first career in product and graphic design, he was ordained in 1993, and has served as a parish pastor in Virginia and South Carolina. He is married to Jill and they have two daughters, one at Roanoke College and one at James Madison University. Archives
December 2021
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