Wait...wait, did you catch that?
TOMORROW!
It still hasn't hit me, the reality of it. My head still says that I'll be returning to another year of high school in the fall...but I won't be. By August I'll be packed up and moving states away to a small Christian College in Mississippi. I won't be in my home, with my family; I won't be near the friends I've made.
Everything will be new; everything will be exciting - everything that is going to happen is just what I always dreamed would. I'm doing what I always knew I would. Haha, and there it is! If I had a dollar for every time someone has asked me 'What are you going to do now?' I'd have all of my college tuition paid off for the next two years.
As we ran through our rehearsal today, my administrator sat our class down and told us that he wanted to give us some words. We sat, though not as still and silent as we most likely should have, as he imparted the following story:
"My mother, as you all know, has been walking home to Jesus for a long time now. Over the last few days she has been walking a little faster there than before...Yesterday I sat with her as she - frankly - lay dying. As the day went on, something amazed me; she is my mother and I love her, but I've never seen her through another person's eyes. People began flowing in and out of my mother's room. Some were nurses on break, others old students just off work, one was a young woman who said to me how she had always felt adopted by my mother as a granddaughter. Each told me one thing: How sweet, loving, and thoughtful my mother was. They told me of her strong character, of her kindness, of her patience and so forth. They told me of her as a person...
Not one of them told me about my mother's life. Not one told me what she did. Not one mentioned her accomplishes, or her failures, or of how she had impacted them. They did not speak of what she did - but of who she was. And that is what I want to leave with you.
People have been asking you, 'What will you do now?'...but I don't want you to think about that. I want you to think about this: What will you be? Because the impression of who you are will last forever, even after what you did has been forgotten."Mr. O' went on with a few more words...and we all sat silently. I am not sure what was running through the minds of my classmates, but I sat with tears in my eyes at the challenge. I am guilty, you see - guilty of focusing on what I will be doing, instead of who I will be. That is changing as of now.
And no matter where you are in life - graduating, or just starting; on your own, or head over heals in love; twenty-five or fifty-two - stop worrying about what you are going to be. Search on your knees for who God wants you to be. To sum it up in Mr. O's words:
"When you be the person God has for you to be, you will do the things God has for you to do."
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P.S. Please be praying for Mr.O and his siblings, as well as all of those that his mother impacted. She is happy and Home with the King - but pain on earth is still a very real thing. Prayers for peace, comfort, and joy are more than appreciated.
