Graduation Preparation

It is that season once again….Graduation season. Many of the Class of 2009 have walked across the stage already. Those who have not are preparing to walk across the stage, preparing their kids to walk across the stage or probably know someone who is participating in a graduation ceremony. Graduations are glorious times. They signify achievement and serve as landmarks in life as the graduate and the people who supported the graduate through the educational process celebrate and recognize the sacrifices that went into making the achievement possible.

Graduations are culminating events that mark the achievement of a goal that in most cases was set in years prior. Graduations are a time to reflect on a journey to pursue excellence that began as a dream. The dream began to take shape and to materialize as the graduate carefully navigated the road to reach a destination called “goal” or “success”.

In order to pursue excellence or to obtain a goal, sacrifices must be made. Clear goals and plans are the filters in which we must run our thoughts, actions, opportunities and priorities through in order to make sense of things and to “purify” or align our decisions with our pursuit of excellence. This filtering process makes the right decisions easier to make because if we are faced with two alternatives our “filtration system” will assist us in eliminating or delaying the alternative that is least aligned with our goals.

There is a potential downside to graduations. Complacency is often the sister of achievement. Too often, we achieve our goals and we stop dreaming. We stop planning for the next goal. We get arrogant and start reading and believing our own press and begin to deceive ourselves into thinking that we have “made it” and that we success is a direct result of our own “greatness”. There is something about reaching a goal that sometimes causes us to let our guard down and to sometimes forget the significance of the struggle to seek success.

In order to gain something that is important to us we must forgo something that is insignificant as compared to that “something” that we want to achieve.

In our pursuit of excellence in life, we sometimes forget about what our #1 goal should be. That goal should be a deeper relationship with God as demonstrated though our relationships with others and the selfless drive to embody the very essence of Love.

Paul summed it up so beautifully:

Philippians 3:7-8 (Amplified Bible)
7But whatever former things I had that might have been gains to me, I have come to consider as [[a]one combined] loss for Christ's sake.
8Yes, furthermore, I count everything as loss compared to the possession of the priceless privilege (the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth, and supreme advantage) of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord and of progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him [of perceiving and recognizing and understanding Him more fully and clearly]. For His sake I have lost everything and consider it all to be mere rubbish (refuse, dregs), in order that I may win (gain) Christ (the Anointed One),

If our desire is to know God, we must be willing to discount the value of everything else when comparing it to becoming more intimate with Him. All that we accomplished on “our own”, all the material things that we have worked so hard to pursue and all the relationships that we have put 1st are all mere “rubbish” as we measure them against the knowledge of God through Christ.

We must be willing to lose and “loose” things in order to “gain” a deeper understanding of God. Just as a student who is on the journey toward graduation, sacrifices must be made in order to achieve the dream or goal. The challenge is found in letting go in order to gain.

What in your life is preventing you from obtaining a deeper understanding of God? What or who are you afraid to lose or “loose”? Has your personal success diminished your perceived need for ultimate reliance on God? What spiritual goals do you need to set in your life?

One day your name will be called…are you preparing to walk across the stage?

Be Blessed,
B