Tassel Tussle

Graduation was going pretty much as I expected it to go that spring evening years ago as I sat in a metal folding chair on the back row - that is where you sit in alphabetical order when your name is Williams.  There were a few surprises.  Some friends got some awards and scholarships.  The local Rotary Club even had one for me (they had to give it to someone).

But then there was a strong unexpected gust of wind that swept across the football field where I was seated.  I caught my graduation hat - mortal board, whatever you want to call it - just as it was about to blow completely off my head.  I adjusted it as quickly as I could because it was just about my turn to go up and get my high school diploma.  Though I got it back in place on my head something felt strange. Where was my tassel?  I could not feel it anywhere. Looking back behind me, it had blown several yards down the field.  Did I have time to go get it before they called my name?  No.  Would they give me my diploma anyway?  I don't know.  I never read that part of the Dress Code.  I was in a tassel tussle diploma dilemma.

I got my diploma, shook a couple of administrators hands and got back to my seat. Whew! Thankfully you do not have to have a tassel to graduate from my high school.  Then it was time to switch the tassel to the other side.  When your last name is Williams and you graduate from Yoakum High School, there are not many people after you in line, so this happened quickly.  As everyone else switched their tassel, I just sat there and observed everyone's tassel turning techniques.  Afterward, they still let me keep my diploma.  There was nothing in the academic handbook about it.  It turned out that it was a bigger dilemma to me than it really was.

The bad thing looking back on it is that my tassel had more yards on that field than I did in my football career.  I am still a little envious of that.

Things happen that you are not expecting.  And when a curve ball gets thrown at you in one of those anxious transitional times in life (graduating from High School) a little thing can feel really big.  No one is really ready for the next big step in life or the next big transition - graduation, marriage, becoming a parent - all those things come and we find curves thrown at us.

Fortunately we have a God who is there in those transitional times and he knows all about those unexpected dilemmas and the awkward, inward tussles that cause us to panic.  Jesus said that he is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.   And since he is all that, he can help us finish things well and he can help us begin new things well.  Even things we have never done before.

So if you are a graduate, congratulations.  If you are the parent of graduate, congratulations to you too.  Does that piece of academic parchment prepare you for everything in life?  Not hardly.  But God is there to help you in the unexpected.  That is where he grows something that has no end to its learning.  No diploma is given because class never ends.  It is called faith.  May you always grow strong in it.

for the journey...

Tim