How High School Reunions Make us Reflect

The lives of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more” (Psalm 103:15-16).

In a few weeks I will be attending my 40^th high school reunion and I’m wondering Where did the years go? It seems like yesterday when I was the lanky, awkward teenager with glasses, playing high school basketball and volleyball and singing “Here’s to our blue and gold” at football games. I was an overachiever who already had one foot in college by my sophomore year of high school.

At my ten-year reunion I was working in television and presented the award, “Most Changed Without Changing My Sex.” I didn’t make it to the most recent reunion called “35 and Still Alive” so the last time I saw my old classmates, I was still in the secular marketplace. This is the first time I will be returning to a reunion as a woman consumed by ministry and a love for God.

I don’t think it’s any accident I will be speaking at two major religious events before the get together and preaching at a San Antonio church the day after. It’s a reminder that I am a new creation and not the same girl who walked the halls of my high school, Alamo Heights. Like the prophet Isaiah I told God, “Here am I. Send Me!”

And he has.

But going to a high school reunion, especially one as significant as this one, reminds us of our mortality.

I am seeing contemporaries, whether in the sportscasting world or sports figures I covered, pass away. They are, as the Bible says, “like grass.”

Soon, we are downsizing and leaving the home we raised our children in. Jokingly, we say this will be our last home before assisted living. It’s really not a joke.

This is a year of transition. Four decades after my high school graduation, it is also a time to look back to see how the Lord has transformed my life. I am thankful he chose to do so.

Think about it. How has God change your life since high school?

So as I head home to catch up on old times, I wonder Will my former classmates see Jesus in me? Will the love of God flow through me?  Will I be considered “most changed” again? Definitely changed for the better.

And I pray that God will allow me to serve him over the next ten years so I can make it to another milestone reunion.

Here am I. Send me.