Congratulations on your graduation from high school, and the advent of life beyond school; the real world, many people call it. Your mom asked if I might write a few words about this for you; on a topic that I think is important, and could be of use to you.
I don’t know whether this will be of use to you, but I do think this is important.
I think every good thing in life begins with Christ, so to have your best life, make Him the center of it. If you lack faith pray for faith. If you don’t believe at all, then realize that this life easily allows you to live without God, or faith in Him, and sometimes one can live here quite well without these, but at some point things usually fall apart in this life, whether from physical or emotional or mental problems, or financial ones, and then it becomes a little clearer why faith, and God, and Christ are important.
But even these are not the best reasons to seek faith, and to seek God, and to seek a relationship with Him; these are in a sense only superficial reasons, even though they are good reasons, but by comparison, the fact that you will die someday, and will need a savior at that time, is by far the most compelling, and unavoidable reason for cultivating a relationship with Jesus, and for living by His commands now, and throughout your life.
But, of course, even the fact of our own death isn’t reason enough, for many people, to seek relationship with Jesus above all other things, because the reality beyond this life is impossible to prove, and we can’t know that His claims are true beyond all doubt; and people want or like proof, before they act. Nobody wants to be a fool, or to appear that way, and basing our life on Christ appears to be foolishness to many people.
Consider this for yourself however, very seriously. Have courage to take your life here, and your potential eternal life, seriously, even if others prefer to avoid the issue, or consider it unanswerable, or pointless, or silly, and consider Christ’s claims of who He is, what He did for us, and why He did it. If you don’t know what He claims to be, what He did, and why, then this is a good first step: to find all of this out for yourself.
There is an excellent quote attributed to Mark Twain, which is: “whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” He is implying that the majority is typically wrong, which of course, isn’t always the case, but it is good to consider that they might be. Don’t allow yourself to go the way of others, merely out of fear or laziness. Your life is too important to squander it out of fear, or from laziness.
When I say to make Christ the center of your life, I mean to do something about that, not to merely say it, or let it just be words without any meaning. There is nothing better that you can do with your time, in my opinion, than to pursue relationship with Christ, and this means learning who He is by reading the Bible, and learning what He asks us to do, which means reading the Bible to find His commands, and then implementing them in your day to day life. This is the source of fulfillment, meaning, and everything else that people want for themselves in life.
Certainly I hope that you find a job that you enjoy, but even if you do, there will be plenty of times that it is just boring, or frustrating, or tedious, and how do you keep going when life can be this way? Do you just find a means of distraction, endless entertainments, only video games and sleep to avoid the monotony, and pass the time? I don’t mean just you, I mean all of us, when I ask this rhetorical question. Maybe this can work for a while, or maybe even for a lifetime, but if you pursue a life with Christ you will come to understand from experience that this is not what He intends for us at all, and while many people settle for just getting by in life, trying not to hurt anyone, and just somehow managing to make it through another day, this isn’t the life you have to settle for.
I can’t tell you what a life dedicated to Christ is like precisely, you will have to discover that for yourself, but I can tell you that it isn’t anything at all, if you don’t do it.
But if you do it, if you learn from Jesus, and follow Him, you will discover a life of joy and blessedness; and I don’t mean a life of ease, or a life without trials and difficulties, that kind of life doesn’t really exist here on earth. I mean a life of joy and blessedness, within the inevitable trials and difficulties of life, and that is something the world without Christ, cannot ever offer you. Take as only one simple example, take the command to love your enemies, to pray for them and wish them good. Who in the world would do that, and who would ever encourage you to do that? But this is one thing Christ tells us to do, and if you do it, if you forgive those who annoy you and who have hurt you, and if you go even further, and even follow His command to pray for them, and to desire good for them, then you will discover a freedom and peace within your soul that would not be there by any other means. His commands are only for your benefit and for your good, and if you trust in Him and in His guidance, you will discover that by doing them, you will find every blessedness that you ever hoped for in this world, and in the next.
This is my advice and suggestion for you as you embark on your life after high school. I hope all the best for you now, and always.
~FS
