Dear Graduate (Class of 2020)

The end of your senior year is quickly approaching. You should be in the thick of your last [normal] semester of high school or college. You’ve worked so hard to get to this point, and soon you’ll have an important piece of paper certifying that you’ve done everything required of you. You should be buying what you need for your senior prom. You should be struggling through very real “senioritis.” You should be getting ready for graduation. Sadly, however, most of that has been interrupted, postponed, or even cancelled. Before I get into anything too deep, I just want to acknowledge something: this situation seriously stinks for you! There, I said it. Maybe you’ve thought it, but it felt selfish to say it aloud. I’ll do it for you. And I want to also say, it’s perfectly ok to feel that way. The disappointment you’re facing is one that really no one has specifically felt before. Thankfully, there is a Creator who knew that this would happen. In fact, He knew how you would feel today and that you would read this. With that in mind, I want to encourage you to think about a few things regarding this interruption to what should be an exciting season in your life.

#1 - Definition of Graduation

One big piece of your senior year that may (or may not) be interrupted is your Commencement Ceremony or Graduation. This is pessimal because graduation is something most people eagerly await. But, what does it really mean to graduate, and what are we celebrating? If you look the word “graduation” up, you’ll find something like: “the ceremony of conferring degrees or diplomas, as at a college or school.” Meaning, literally, that a graduation is a ceremony where you are gifted your certificate of completion. Another way to think of it is as “recognition.” Thus, while our current circumstances may impede the ceremony and public recognition from happening, it will not stop you from reaching the end-goal and receiving your diploma. This is good! This will also be a lesson for future you, one that you would normally learn later in life. But, due to current circumstances, you are being forced to learn it now. Here it is:

Often in life, the things that are worth your hard work and effort will offer little to no public recognition.

We grow up having eighth grade graduation and high school graduation. We have end-of-year awards. We get certificates for honor roll. We get trophies and medals in sports and other competitions. Then for a lot of people, once you’re out of high school and/or college, those awards suddenly stop. This is the point in life where your internal value of doing your best drives your every day accomplishments and goals, rather than your desire to be praised and recognized. Your work ethic is one of the few things you can take with you from high school and/or college that will continue to benefit you throughout life. Therefore, don’t let this current situation cause you to lose the motivation to work hard. Instead, work even harder than usual so that when this school year ends — whatever that might look like, when the time comes — you can sign off knowing that you did your very best.

#2 - Definition of Pioneer

I have used the word “pioneer” to describe your generation for some time now. Your generation is super unique — even more now than before. This begs the question, what does it mean to be a pioneer? A quick search on dictionary.com says that to pioneer means “to be the first to open or prepare (a way, settlement, etc.)” and “to take part in the beginnings of” something. You are the first generation to have grown up fully in the “digital age.” Most likely, there is not a day that you remember not having access to internet, email, social media, and even smartphones. You are pioneers. Now, you have become the first generation to experience the effects of a global pandemic to the point of shutting down your schools and ending your entire school career electronically. Again, you are pioneers.

It may seem like the best thing to do right now is to watch those older than you and see how they would respond to the current situation you’re in. But in reality, no one in recent history has done this before! The campaign going around on social media of posting your throwback senior pictures out of solidarity to class of 2020 is completely counterproductive and proves my point. We haven’t dealt with this specific circumstance before, and therefore, don’t know how to respond.

My call to action for you, then, is to own this! First of all, understand that it is okay for you to not know exactly how to respond to this current situation. The truth is, no one does. Second of all, be pioneers! You show us what it looks like to be a senior in high school or college right now. You show us that even though your normal has been interrupted, you can still handle yourself with grace and pride for all that you have done. The canvas is blank right now, and that should be exciting to you. Paint the picture. You’ll be in history books one day. What will my grandchildren read about how you responded to this situation?

#3 - Recognize Idols and Get Rid of Them

This time of staying at home has probably done for you what it has done for me: it has made you realize how much your brain craves distraction (I’ll have more on that in a later article). In church language, a lot of times we refer to things that distract us from having our hearts set on Jesus as idols. This season of forcibly having a more open schedule (or at the very least, more time at home) is a great time to “reflect and detect.” Reflect on your own life and how you spend your time, then detect the habits you have that are unhealthy and distracting.

I’ll speak for myself here. My iPhone is an idol in my life. I have seen that more during this season than ever before. A phrase I’ve been using recently is “I want my phone to be a tool instead of a distraction.” This season really opened my eyes to that reality in my life, and I’m now taking steps to remedy it. What about you? How are you spending your time? What distracting habits exist in your life that you want to replace with something better? Now is the perfect time to make that change. Your routine is already interrupted which means you’re having to “build a new normal.” Therefore, I want to challenge you to build a normal that eliminates at least one idol and replaces it with something new and constructive. Just one! Is it to build in an hour of screen-free time during the day? Is it to spend 20 minutes reading the Bible in the morning? Whatever it may be, do it now. It’s the perfect time.

If you think you can just wait until things go back to “normal” to make the change, you’re mistaken. It will be much more difficult to create change when that occurs because you’ll be craving the old, familiar routine so much. That’s why you have to make the change now during a season where interruption is normal. Trust me. You’ll be glad you did.

#4 - Trust in the Lord

A couple verses from the Bible that have been really important to me in my life are Proverbs 3:5-6.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”

I’ve preached numerous times on this passage. I’ve also experienced this many times in my own life. There are three distinct steps that you can and should take for one incredible outcome. If you’ll trust in the Lord, lean not on yourself, and acknowledge Him, then He will direct your paths. In preaching, I would call this a conditional promise from God. This means that His promise to direct your paths hinges on your willingness to do the things listed before. The difficulty is that the things that this passage encourages us to do is explicitly against what our current culture tells us to do. We live in this world that’s all about self. You’re told to believe in yourself, look out for yourself, take care of yourself, etc. But here’s the problem with that: your self is treacherous! The Bible makes it clear that mankind is not good apart from God (Romans 3). For this reason, trusting in self is a dangerous thing to do.

In our current situation, this is doubly true. If I was trusting in myself during this pandemic, I would be an anxious mess. If I was leaning on my own understanding during this time, I wouldn’t understand anything! If I was refusing to acknowledge God during these trying times, I would be filled with bitterness. And worst of all, I would be without direction. Instead, we must make the effort to do what this passage tells us to do. What might it look like for you to trust in the Lord right now with ALL of your heart? What might it look like for you to trust Him more than you trust yourself? What might it look like for you to be willing to acknowledge God even in the midst of a trying time? I don’t know exactly what it would like for your life specifically, but I do know this: God will direct your paths as a result. And that’s what I want. Especially during a time like this, I want God to be directing my steps. Therefore, I will do my best to trust in the Lord with all my heart and not lean on my own understanding. I will acknowledge Him in all my ways and ask Him to be faithful to direct my paths. The future is full of unknowns right now, but I rest in knowing that my Creator holds my next step.

#5 - Pray

That’s it? Yep…pray. If you are a Jesus-follower then you know (or should know) how monumental prayer is. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, we now have the ability — no, the great priestly privilege — to approach our precious Father in prayer. Not only that, but we know from Romans 8 that all three persons of our triune God are involved when we pray. In a very real way, we are experiencing a miracle each time we speak to God. But instead, often, our first response in a time of crisis is to talk to other people way more and way before we talk to God. It seems crazy even as I’m writing it, but I have the same tendency. I’m quick to join groups on Facebook to discuss our situation, I’m quick to ask others what they think and how this is affecting them, and then after all of that, I’ll pray. What a silly thing to do!

No person is going to cause this semester to make any more sense for you. No person is going to be able to take away your anxiety and give you a peace that is unexplainable. No person is going to be able to, from one day to the next, change your circumstances. But there is a God who wants to hear from you and is ready to change you for the better as you continue to seek him through this season. This whole season would be such a waste if we came out of it the exact same as when it started. We should grow through this and become more like Christ, but we have to work toward that. And if we’re not willing to be spending time with God being honest with our feelings, asking Him to help us mature and understand His ways that are higher than ours, then we’re going to miss it.

Are you feeling fearful of the current situation? That’s okay, but go to God about it! He can take your fear and replace it with peace (Philippians 4:6-7). You won’t get there without Him. That’s a fact. Realize the gift you have in your relationship with God, and talk to Him about everything!

In conclusion, graduate, let me bless you with words from Scripture:

“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you PEACE.”

I don’t know what graduation will look like this year. I don’t know what your next six months will look like. But I know this: there is a God who knows every hair on your head, who loves you and desires to have an intimate love relationship with you today. If this is something you already know and have experienced, then lean into that. Trust Him in a new way. If this is something that seems foreign to you or leads you to more questions, contact me at trent@richfork.com or on any social media @trent_santos.

Let me be one of the first to honor you, commend you, and congratulate you on reaching this stage in your life. Well done, Class of 2020. Now go be pioneers and change the world!