Sep 26 2007
letter to a graduate
I was asked by a friend to be one of many people to write a letter to her son who is about to turn 18 and graduate from High School. I did not feel up the task and did not have enough time to give it what it deserved. Nevertheless, I did write something and since it was written, I decided to share it here.
Dear _________
There is a lot that distracts us. Even good things can distract from better things. The perfect can distract from the good. And of course Evil is particularly distracting.
In the midst of life, I find that I can easily be distracted from the purposes of God. Sometimes I am distracted by sin, or by fear or by laziness. But often I am distracted because I can’t see the forest for the trees. I become so focused on one issue or idea that I lose sight of the big picture. In my distracted world I am grateful for Ephesians 2. I know of no clearer summary for the full and glorious purposes of God than the second chapter of Ephesians. In most Bibles it is printed in two paragraphs. This is helpful because it draws us to notice that in this chapter Paul has two main ideas. But these are not separate ideas, but rather a single fully integrated whole. They support and affirm each other and neither is possible without the other.
Read Ephesians 2 (really, go do it), and in the first half you will see that it is the full intention of God to restore you and all people. By God’s grace and through faith you have been saved for the purpose of good works. In the second half, you will see that God intends to restore all people into a people. God’s purposes are not satisfied by restoring many individuals. God’s purposes continue working to bring all people together into one community. God cannot make a people unless individual people are restored, and God cannot restore individual people apart from their participation in the community of God’s kingdom.
Whenever I am distracted, I turn to Ephesians 2. There, laid before us, is God’s full intention: to restore people so that we might become a people.
And it is toward that purpose that you must strive.
on the walk
-Ethan
Tall order. An undistracted 18 year old. This passage is great because he will always have quiet moments among the din: walking to class, coming home from a party, trying to decide ‘what should I do tonight,” when he asks himself what is his purpose, what am I doing with my life, what am I going to do ? This passage provides both the answer and the reason. God bless this kid. and all the others about to jump.
kire