Superhighschoolgraduateman Can't Do It Either
Graduating from high-school is an interesting experience. One day you're hitting the textbooks (sometimes literally), and the next day you're realizing that after summer, there's no opening that device of cerebral numbing again. I'm not downplaying education (actually, I am), but for quite a few of us, the last few years of high-school aren't used very efficiently. But they could be.
Moving on from a potential rant....
Excerpts from real cards I received below. And just in case, if you see one you recognize giving me below, I still appreciate the card a ton! Really. Just not the factory-printed message.
May this day be the beginning of success and accomplishments, and hope that each tomorrow brings much more than what you may wish for!
You don't need to hear who hard you've worked or how proud you should be- because you already know that better than anybody!
You deserve to feel wonderful about what you're accomplished.
The road to success is traveled by those who believe in themselves.
Hope all your dreams come true!
I sure appreciate all the sincere people behind those cards though. :-)
The point of all that is to say that the world sure likes one person superheros. And after graduating from high-school it's kind of like everybody's hyping you up to more than you are. "Hey! Superhighschoolgraduateman! Go! You can do it! Work hard and you'll be successful! It's all gonna be great 'cause you've got your whole life to devote towards getting what we've been working our whole life for too!"
The world says go out and fight. Fight till the blood flows from bloody knuckles and trickles between cracked teeth. Fight until every muscle grows stronger from the fight, and until every muscle eventually collapses again. Fight until your toes turn purple! Do all this and you'll get what you fought for. But you know what? It's a fat, slimy lie. One of my unofficial mentors (which means he doesn't know he's a mentor to me) once said, "When one door closes, sometimes all the others are shut too." Or something close to that.
I don't know what official statistics say, but if you look at the world, a few people are rich because they worked hard and smart, a few are rich because they inherited it in some way, and the rest are still fighting. I'd say something like 10% versus 90%. Everybody loves the idea of a superman saving the day. Dodge hundreds of bullets or lasers, grunt while straining to lift that beam, flip the giant switch to remake the world.... sci-fi movies have it all... :-)
End note is, that superman we aspire to be had his chance. Adam didn't have sin already going against him and he still couldn't win the day. What do we think we are to think we could do better and not eat of the tree? We all inherit the sin he committed like the genetics we inherit from our parents.
There is, however, Jesus. Not a sparkly magical Christanese angel that's easy to scoff at, but GOD. Came down from heaven, born a virgin birth so he didn't inherit sin, humbly wrapped himself in weak humanity, lived a perfect life, and died on a cross. All so that sin we committed against an eternal and holy God could be paid for by someone who could pay.
There is no superman. But there is Jesus. Emmanuel, God with us. And he is the difference between an eternity of fighting in torment, or knowing the right people and living eternity in paradise.
Moving on from a potential rant....
Excerpts from real cards I received below. And just in case, if you see one you recognize giving me below, I still appreciate the card a ton! Really. Just not the factory-printed message.
May this day be the beginning of success and accomplishments, and hope that each tomorrow brings much more than what you may wish for!
You don't need to hear who hard you've worked or how proud you should be- because you already know that better than anybody!
You deserve to feel wonderful about what you're accomplished.
The road to success is traveled by those who believe in themselves.
Hope all your dreams come true!
I sure appreciate all the sincere people behind those cards though. :-)
The point of all that is to say that the world sure likes one person superheros. And after graduating from high-school it's kind of like everybody's hyping you up to more than you are. "Hey! Superhighschoolgraduateman! Go! You can do it! Work hard and you'll be successful! It's all gonna be great 'cause you've got your whole life to devote towards getting what we've been working our whole life for too!"
The world says go out and fight. Fight till the blood flows from bloody knuckles and trickles between cracked teeth. Fight until every muscle grows stronger from the fight, and until every muscle eventually collapses again. Fight until your toes turn purple! Do all this and you'll get what you fought for. But you know what? It's a fat, slimy lie. One of my unofficial mentors (which means he doesn't know he's a mentor to me) once said, "When one door closes, sometimes all the others are shut too." Or something close to that.
I don't know what official statistics say, but if you look at the world, a few people are rich because they worked hard and smart, a few are rich because they inherited it in some way, and the rest are still fighting. I'd say something like 10% versus 90%. Everybody loves the idea of a superman saving the day. Dodge hundreds of bullets or lasers, grunt while straining to lift that beam, flip the giant switch to remake the world.... sci-fi movies have it all... :-)
End note is, that superman we aspire to be had his chance. Adam didn't have sin already going against him and he still couldn't win the day. What do we think we are to think we could do better and not eat of the tree? We all inherit the sin he committed like the genetics we inherit from our parents.
There is, however, Jesus. Not a sparkly magical Christanese angel that's easy to scoff at, but GOD. Came down from heaven, born a virgin birth so he didn't inherit sin, humbly wrapped himself in weak humanity, lived a perfect life, and died on a cross. All so that sin we committed against an eternal and holy God could be paid for by someone who could pay.
There is no superman. But there is Jesus. Emmanuel, God with us. And he is the difference between an eternity of fighting in torment, or knowing the right people and living eternity in paradise.
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