Grads reminded that each decision has consequences

"Every decision has consequences."

The Rev. Bruce Lester, pastor at McCook Evangelical Free Church, reiterated that point throughout his brief remarks Sunday evening during his Baccalaureate address at First Baptist Church.

Lester illustrated the point using the example of the painting "The Last Supper" by Leonardo DaVinci.

According to Lester, it took DaVinci nearly seven years to complete the mural depicting Christ and his disciples in the upper room for the Passover meal on the night of Christ's betrayal.

DaVinci auditioned models for each of the people portrayed in the painting, beginning with Jesus, looking for just the right countenance to capture his artistic vision. After several weeks, the painter had his Christ, the face of innocence, the face of faith, and the painting began. With each character, the procedure was the same. The final character to be painted was Judas Iscariot, the betrayer.

DaVinci searched for months, without success, to find just the right face to reflect the deceit, the greed and the guilt that drove Judas to this moment in time. It was a frustrating search, until finally he got word that the subject he wanted was imprisoned in Rome.

Seeing the man, DaVinci was convinced this was his Judas and he obtained permission from the King to bring him out of the dungeon to sit for the painting. And so the man sat, under guard, for the six months it took DaVinci to incorporate him into the mural.

After the last brushstroke, DaVinci excused the man to be returned to his imprisonment and eventual death sentence. The man broke free of the guard and threw himself at DaVinci's feet, crying, "Look at me! Don't you know who I am?"

DaVinci responded, "I do not know you. I had never seen you before this time."

"No," the man cried, "You do know me! I am the same man you painted six years ago as the person of Christ!"

"Consequences," said Lester. "What set of decisions and resulting consequences could have happened in six or seven years, to have changed so thoroughly the countenance and the life of this man?'

It happens. It can happen to anyone. Because decisions have consequences and "all of our life accomplishments are made one decision at a time," Lester said.

Godly people are not born godly, Lester explained, "it is a decision that they make, day by day, just as evil people become evil one decision at a time."

Lester, quoting Proverbs 4:23, encouraged the seniors to, "... guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life."

Lester was joined Sunday night by seniors John Haag and Cassie Olsen, who shared their testimony with their classmates.

For Haag, God was a part of everyday life. A student at St. Patrick School, he celebrated Jesus everyday. But it wasn't until he was a freshman in high school and his grandmother began aggressive treatments for cancer that the depth of the faith he lived every day revealed itself.

Accompanying his grandmother to North Platte one day for her chemo treatment, he recalled his shock at seeing her without her ball cap, and her hair. He stood by in disbelief as the medication was administered, realizing for the first time the depth of his grandmother's suffering.

"But she kept saying, 'John, I'll be fine. Don't worry,'" Haag said, pausing a moment to collect himself.

This was not OK, he remembered thinking. This is nowhere near OK.

Things grew progressively worse. John went to visit his grandmother and was so taken aback by her deteriorating condition that he asked his mom to go in with him. Still, his grandmother insisted, "John, I'll be fine. Don't worry."

And John finally realized that what she was saying was true.

"I knew she would be OK. And I knew I didn't have to worry. She and Jesus had already worked things out."

When John's dad informed him of the death of his grandmother, John continued on with his day, saddened and prayerful, but confident, because her suffering was over and God was taking care of her.

Cassie Olsen spoke with unusual frankness about her fifth grade ambition to become "popular," a goal that was sideswiped by a comment made by Cassie's classmate, Hannah Putz.

"You know God knows everything," Hannah shared one day as the two girls walked home from school.

"I hadn't ever thought about that," admitted Cassie. She attended church with her family, but God was something they only talked about on Sundays. Hannah's comment stayed with Cassie and inspired her to continue seeking. In the eighth grade Cassie completed her 32 weeks of confirmation classes, but still wasn't ready to fully commit her life to the teachings of Christ.

Accompanying friends to the Sonshine Music Festival in Minnesota one summer before high school, Cassie did commit her life to Christ, seeing in the people there a yearning for the Lord that she wanted in her heart.

From that time on, Cassie said, "My life was different. I was transformed." She entered a time of great doubt in her freshman year, but clung to her faith and trusted God. She came through that dark trial and realized that she had been completely redeemed from doubts, and fears, and today, still trusts God to equip her. "I am a product of God's grace," she said, "God's grace on the cross." It was God's grace that called her and it is God's grace that sustains her, she said

"Anything good that I have done, is because He is in my life," she said.

Special music included a piece written and performed by Anthony Bieck, a song that was inspired when he struck out on his own a year ago and discovered how quickly the cares of the world consumed his time, leaving nothing for his walk with Jesus. "Stop. Look around. Are you sure this is what you want?" he questions in his song, "Look in the mirror. Do you see yourself as an image of Jesus?"

Tori Davis and Maggie Sanders performed a duet of "Unwritten" by Natasha Beddingfield and Tenielle Lytle sang "In Better Hands" by Natalie Grant. Chris Wilson performed "To Spring" by Edvard Grieg on the piano.

Pam Wolford welcomed the class of 2008 and encouraged students to make deep roots in Jesus, reading from Jeremiah 17:7, 8.

"High winds will blow," she warned. "Ice storms come and so does disease, but take courage and be strong, trust God."

Lester was joined on the dais by the Rev. Gary Brethour, St. Patrick's Church who offered the invocation; the Rev. Dr. Jeff Thurman, Memorial United Methodist Church, who led the congregation in singing "Awesome God,"; the Rev. Jason VanPelt, McCook Christian Church, who read 1 Peter 1:3-9; the Rev. Emmanuel Reinbold, First Church of the Nazarene, who read James 4:13-17; Allan Jackson, First Baptist Church, who gave the benediction and the Rev. Dr. Mary Hendricks, St. Alban's Episcopal Church and the Rev. Clark Bates, McCook Christian Church.

Christy Stevens played the piano.