Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper

A Time for Hope

Sunday was confirmation day at one of the churches I co-pastor.

Six young people stood before the congregation to denounce Satan, recite scripture, profess faith in Jesus Christ and join the church. As I looked at the teens standing in front of the church, I couldn’t help but reflect on the world they’ll be entering after high school.

Similar thoughts were in my mind as I spoke to Leyton students at the Gurley Lions Club annual Junior/Senior banquet.

The Lions invite students from the local high school to a catered dinner each year, and the event usually features a guest speaker who is usually me because I’m cheap and will work for a good meal. In any case, this year I covered the best and worst degrees to pursue, how to stay out of poverty, how to avoid getting fired, and why having God in your life is important.

There are many ways in which we Baby Boomers have failed our young people. We’re handing them a really messed up world, and we’re the ones who made the mess they’ll have to clean up. To do so, they’ll need to have a level of character, wisdom and faith we can only aspire to.

We’ll be handing off to them hyperinflation, a nation bitterly divided on many levels, high levels of international strain and tension if not outright war, and a political system in which idiots are running the asylum. Is the best we can do to help them just putting a $10 bill in a nice card wishing them luck and congratulations as they step into the quagmire of adult life? That’s a question I’ve asked myself a lot lately, as one who has and still does the venerable card & cash graduation gift. But this year, especially in light of the time in which we live, I felt a need to do more.

Among the many hats I wear is that of President of the Dalton and Gurley Community Shepherds, a non-denominational, non-profit Christian organization serving those communities and northern Cheyenne and southern Morrill Counties. I reached out to others on the Community Shepherds board with an idea for sending the Leyton seniors off into adulthood with one of the three books I think every student needs to take to college – a study bible.

For those not familiar, a study bible differs from other bibles in that it contains detailed notes in margins and at the bottom of its pages written by panels of reputable scholars and theologians to help explain, interpret and understand the text. Given the complexity of the world today, I can think of no better gift to give a young person than the Word of God and the wisdom it contains.

I’m not naïve. I know there may be some who might sell their bible on eBay, toss it in a bin with used textbooks, or keep it on a bookshelf to show others how well-rounded they are.

But if there is one student who, in the midst of a time of personal crisis, sadness or depression later at school or in life, sees that bible on the bookshelf, takes it down, opens it, and encounters the life-changing power of God it contains in a personal way that delivers him or her from the situation at hand, then the effort and money it took to get that bible into his or her hands will be money well spent.

 

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