By Pastor Joel Lawler

I am turning 37 years old on the third of this month. By the time you have read this, most likely the cake and ice cream would have already been consumed and the extra 5 pounds of weight added to my frame.

I am taking martial arts classes with my kids. I love it. It is extremely humbling, challenging and yet somehow fun. The class has kids ages five to well.... some guy who is about to turn 37 in it. There is a group of guys that are in their late teens that I have gotten a chance to know who are a part of our class. One of them just graduated from high school. He and I were talking about what happens when you walk out of your high school for the last time as a student. We were discussing how all the things that seemed to matter so much all of a sudden did not matter any more now that he was done with school.

There is a whole society in high school. Everyone is put into groups.

They are ranked by whether their parents have money or not. They are more highly valued if they have athletic skills. How they look is very important. Who they are friends with matters to their social standing. If they are in the right clique, it means a great deal to their importance. Having a sense of humor that everyone relates to is important. There are many factors that go into a person's value.

There are also hidden variables that come into play. To the person who is in high school all this is extremely important and weighs heavy on how they act, look and interact with others.

The day after graduation, all this does not matter anymore. I remember when people who had graduated returned for a visit. If they made a brief and very rare appearance, they were treated courteously. There were several who made multiple appearances and their presence was awkward and rather embarrassing because it seemed that they could not let go and move on. All the effort to matter and be high in the social order is really useless once a person is handed that piece of paper on graduation day.

My eldest son and I were driving by a graveyard. He asked me if rich people got bigger grave stones. I answered him that yes they did but the end result is they are buried in the same ground and just as dead as the poor people.

I am a computer geek at a fairly large law firm in Nashville. My position is at the bottom of the pile. Attorneys run and own the place. They are naturally and rightfully at the top of the firm. The attorneys have an order based on performance. The more a person earns, the higher they climb. All of them

work very hard and long hours. It is part of being an attorney at this firm. Sometimes I wonder if the effort and many long hours are worth it.

I guess it comes with the territory of being in my late 30's, but I am starting to look at and think about what really matters. When I "graduate" from this life, will the things that I thought of as important really matter?
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