Pastor’s Corner: Congratulations, Graduates

May 20, 2020

This coming weekend should have brought families together with friends, loved ones, and supporters to celebrate the graduation of our senior classes of Hilo and Waiakea High Schools. Instead of the grand gathering, celebrating families will attend a ceremony streamed over the Internet and graduates will reach for their diplomas through the windows of their cars.

It’s a disappointing thing to reach a milestone and find that the world cannot honor it as it would.

To our graduates, regardless of whether they are members of our church family or not, I say this:

You have come into adulthood in a difficult time. The structures that shaped you and the practices you adopted have brought you to this point, but now some of these structures do not serve us well. Some of these practices now come with risks to you and to others that we dare not accept as responsible adults.

Adulthood can bring many disappointments.

The world beyond high school is not the one you expected. It is not the one that anyone intended to create for you, either. If you are continuing your education, I expect you know by now that nobody is certain how that will work in the fall. If you are seeking employment, you know very well what a struggle that is.

Adulthood can be uncertain.

Amidst the disappointment and the uncertainty, however, I celebrate you. I celebrate the gifts you bring into the world. I celebrate the restless energy of your next years. I celebrate the compassion and generosity and courage you have shown in your youth. I celebrate the world you will struggle to create – better, we pray, than the world you have found.

I celebrate you. I hope for your success. I pray for your joy.

With aloha,

Pastor Eric

The image comes from The Noun Project – https://thenounproject.com/icon/17424, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67123387.