What about our graduates?

While our thoughts seem to center this week around the high school graduation, God’s physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, etc., provisions are abundantly available to every young person experiencing a major transition in their lives.

How precious is the Scripture in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” David expands on this subject in Psalm 139:17-18, “How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand!”

Each young person comes to this time in different stages of planning and preparation. One young person awoke the day after graduation with no solid opportunities for employment nor plans for further formal education and prayed, “O Lord, what am I going to do now?” God had the answer for that graduate.

I graduated from high school in Batesville knowing I was going into gospel ministry and having already chosen the Bible college I would attend. However, I faced the dilemma of nonexistent finances and diminished health. With Dad and Mom still rearing my four younger brothers, I secured a summer job, then obtained a loan to get me in the door at college in Oklahoma City. After that, it was a full-time job for four years while carrying a full college load.

The week before leaving for college, I spent in the hospital, where I was diagnosed with an acute duodenal ulcer. I can tell you there was nothing “cute” about it. My doctor said, “If you weren’t so young, I would remove three-fifths of your stomach.” So, I battled the health issue for the entire four years. But, as II Corinthians 9:8 reminds us, “God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that, ye (you) always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound unto every good work.” God supplied my every need.

Some young people cross the finish line seemingly totally prepared for the future – a full scholarship to the university of their dreams, excellent health and unlimited financial resources. Still to achieve their goals and meet the challenges that come in every life, it will entail more commitment, determination and effort than ever imagined and, hopefully, more dependence on the God of Heaven.

A final thought along this line is of those who, many times through no fault of their own, never cross that finish line of graduation. They can rest assured that God has precious thoughts and plans for them, too, which “are more in number than the sand.”

No greater guidance could any young person in any situation ever follow than Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.”

Let’s remember that one day we all will graduate from this life and may we say with the Apostle Paul in II Timothy 4:6-7, “The time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course; I have kept the faith.” This is possible by placing our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life.

Congratulations, graduates and your families.

Randy Zinn is pastor of Russell Missionary Baptist Church in Russell.