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Tuesday, April 15, 2014

The Choices We Make

This article appeared in the April, 2014 edition of the Wheatland Parish newsletter.


            As many of you know, the Gettysburg High School prom has been scheduled for April 19.  This is, of course, the night before Easter Sunday, April 20.

            The purpose of this article is not to criticize the superintendent, the school board, or anyone else who was involved in this scheduling decision.  I would have preferred, of course, that the prom have been scheduled for a different day.  However, I’ve scheduled enough events in my life to know that doing so is always a difficult thing.  I know that the school only has so many weekends available.  I also know that whenever you schedule an event, there will inevitably be a conflict with something.  It’s impossible to please everyone, no matter what you do.

            The people I’d like to address with this article are the high school students in the Gettysburg church.  Now, I’m smart enough to know that church newsletters are not exactly popular reading material among high school students.  So, I ask the parents of those high school students to point this article out to them and ask them to read it.

            As many of you know, Easter Sunday is generally considered, along with Christmas, to be one of the two most important days of the Christian year.  At Christmas we celebrate the birth of the Savior into this world.  At Easter we celebrate the resurrection of the Savior, who died to take away our sins and rose again to give us the promise of our ultimate eternal life in heaven.  These two events are at the heart of our Christian faith.

            When you’re in high school, though, the high school prom is extremely important, too.  I understand that.  I’m fifty-five, but I’m not so old that I’ve forgotten how important the high school prom is at your age.  I want you to be able to go to the prom.  I want you to have a wonderful time at the prom.  A high school prom can be something you remember the rest of your life.

            Is it possible for you to both have a great time at the high school prom and be in church on Easter Sunday?  Of course it is, if you choose to do that.  It’s even possible for you to have a great time at the post-prom party and still come to church on Easter Sunday.  And, of course, it’s not just important that you physically be in church.  It’s important that you actually come to worship God, which is what we’re all supposed to do every Sunday in church.  You can do that, if you choose to do so.

            So, it comes down to a choice.  That’s what life is all about really:  choices.  That’s what our Christian faith is all about, too. 

           The choices we make reveal, both to others and to ourselves, who we are and what we value.  Most of the time, it’s really not a question of knowing the right thing to do.  It can be, but most of the time, we know what the right thing to do is.  We just don’t want to do it.  And so, we make excuses for ourselves.  We find ways to justify our behavior.  We know better, but we find ways to convince ourselves that it’s okay to do things we know we should not do and that it’s okay not to do things we know we should do.

           That’s the case here.  You don’t need me to tell you that you should come to church and worship God on Easter Sunday.  You already know that.  The question is, will you do it?  Or will you make an excuse not to?  Will you do what you know you should do, or will you come up with a way to justify not doing it?

           It’s your choice.  The choice you make will reveal, to others but most of all to yourself, who you are and what you value.

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