Resurrection Voices
Reflection on my Confirmation Verse
by Mason Rumohr
“We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.”
2 Corinthians 4:8-9
My grade has every reason to be sad, depressed, and cry every day. We have had to go through things that most people never experience and never should. In the summer before we went into 7th grade, a friend and classmate died from being hit by a car. The whole town of Pewaukee was affected, and especially my grade. That by itself is more than any kid should have to go through. Then, on September 13, 2018, another friend and classmate died in his sleep. No one should have to go to a funeral of their own friend when they haven’t even graduated high school yet. My grade has had two classmates pass away. We could just give up this school year, and our teachers would just try and help us through it with no punishment. But none of us has. God has been there.
The day the most recent classmate died, we had a football game that afternoon. We are a team that hasn’t lost since 7th grade, but we have never been on the level that we played on that night. Every play we were thinking of our friend and how God helped us through it. We didn’t even let the other team score. They only made it across midfield twice. That’s how motivated we were. But there was also the aspect of God to it. I truly do not believe we would have been able to play like that or even keep our composure without the help of him. He put a vigor in us that night so strong that no one else could have. It’s not just my grade or me — all of us, most likely, have had to go through something that hurt us, troubled us, and made us wonder why that had to happen. But everything happens for a reason.
The wrestling team at my school has a motto: “Don’t count how many times I get knocked down — count how many times I get up.” I think that this ties in with the quote from the Bible. They both represent people going through things but always getting up — whether that may be getting over a loss of someone, getting over an injury, or a relationship. These last years of Confirmation have taught me that. If that night on the football field had happened before I had taken Confirmation, I wouldn’t have thought twice about it. But now that I have had the opportunity to learn about God and his amazing powers, I know it was him. He has helped blind people see, deaf people hear, and broken people heal. I have had the great privilege of being taught by people that truly do care about every one of us being confirmed. They were always eager to answer questions that we had and they were always patient with us.
This Bible verse is the most meaningful to me because at times I have felt like I have been hunted down, pressed on every side, and I’m sure you have too. But you got through it. It may have taken time and other things to help heal the pain, but you got through it, and God was with you every step of the way. Because he never gives up on us. He gave his life for us so that our sins could be forgiven. I was taught that God will always forgive your sins and will help you until you find relief in bad situations. God is always watching over all of us. He always has and always will be.
- Mason Rumohr
|
|
|
|
