Chuck Reynolds

Faith

Graduation ceremonies have become somewhat of a spectacle involving multiple events, one such event, the Baccalaureate, offers non-denominational service to celebrate the graduation. My Baccalaureate featured six students speaking on faith. I was speaker number three. I came across the speech while cleaning up my computer and thought it would be interesting to re-post it here, with some edits, of course.

As High School seniors what do you think we put our faith in everyday?

For me, much to my parents’ chagrin, I put a lot of faith in my memory in order to escape the last  hour of studying.  I have faith I’m going to have time in English to do my Spanish homework, and most importantly; I have a faith that every day  traffic is going to be lighter so I can seep in.

But where does faith in God fit?

Unfortunately it isn’t high on the pecking order, at first glance.  People pray and hope their lives will improve and things will happen. If you’ve seen “Bruce Almighty” you know how things end if we get what we want – chaos. Everyone has has conflicting prayers.

What do I want?

Right now I want a nice car.  I want to go to college and have a great time. I want to learn all that I can.  Tomorrow I will want something different; I may want a bagel.  But what we want now is of little consequence.

What is of consequence is that we put our trust in God.  We trust that in twenty years the things that matter, the friendships that we choose and experiences that we have had in our high school and college lives, give us what is really important later in life.

Having faith in God in the present is key, that is what keeps me knowing that everything that I have done, every test I have failed, whether it be in Spanish or in dealing with my friends and mentors, was failed for a reason.  Faith in God today reminds me that tomorrow my hardships and sweat will become the experiences I rely on and the tears of joy in looking back at a meaningful life.