The Pastor’s Piece, Pastor Kevin Cernek, FCFI Chaplain
FCFI
May 18, 2025
“Cake and Ice Cream”
It’s graduation season. And that is a major milestone for anyone who is getting a diploma of any kind. My very first memory of a graduation was when my little brother, who is three years my junior, graduated from Kindergarten. It was the first Kindergarten class in our school’s history. If my math is correct, that would have been the year 1968. The whole family went to the ceremony and afterward, we all had cake and ice cream back at the house. Five years later, in 1973, my oldest brother graduated from high school and I graduated from 8th grade. We had a double party. Relatives from far and wide came to celebrate. Afterward, we had cake and ice cream back at the house.
The summer of the year I graduated from high school was a great time in my life. I had no responsibilities other than to work on the farm. In between milking cows, putting up hay, cultivating corn, and later detasseling corn, I was free to have fun. My buddies and I would oftentimes go swimming – either at Yellowstone Lake or Beckman’s Lake. Or, we’d go to someone’s private pond and swim for an hour or two and then head back to the farm for work. After chores at night we’d play softball – usually about three nights a week. It was a great time in my life.
Then life set in. After graduation one has a career to think about and many decisions to make. My path wasn’t direct but it got me to where God wanted me to be. Eventually I settled into a life-long pastorate with a few other vocations along the way.
There’s nothing quite like the joy of those last few weeks of high school. Freedom beckons from everywhere. No more school. Everyday will be Saturday. It was similar to the feeling I had the first time I drove solo after getting my driver’s license.
I remember my own graduation … We didn’t have air-conditioning back then. Well, we had it, just not at school. It was blistering hot in the gymnasium. We had practiced walking down the center aisle to our seats earlier that day at school. We had caps and gowns and really for the first time in 12 years, it felt like everyone in our class was on the same level. No one was any better than anyone else. It didn’t matter if you earned straight A’s or if you squeaked by with a D- average, we were all getting a diploma of equal value that night – 12 years of diligence finally paid off. Everyone felt the same excitement. For some, the excitement would be limited to just a few weeks as college awaited them. For others, it would be no more school for the rest of their lives as they went right into the workforce. Of course, the School of Hard Knocks awaited us all. I didn’t have college plans after high school at that time. I guess I didn’t really have any plans except that I was going to work on the farm, and that was all I needed. Later, those plans changed, but at the time I was all set.
And now, looking back, it strikes me at how fast all the years have gone. I got settled into life, into a career, loved my wife and together we raised our family and suddenly, it’s all in the rear-view mirror. The years have flown by and while hopefully, I still have many more left, I realize that for the most part, I have already made my mark on the world. And I hope, with that mark, a good name.
The Bible says that a good name is better than riches. As our graduates head out the door and into the real world, I hope they are able to grasp the value of a good name and the importance of making right choices. Someone once said that character can be defined by what one does when no one is looking. Life is not about being happy, it’s not about finding the easy way, it’s not even about success or failure, but it’s about faith and courage. All those other things will come and go, but true success depends on the level of our faith in our Creator and Savior and the courage we have to face life as it comes our way.
Congratulations to our graduates. May God bless you.
(Kevin Cernek is Lead Pastor of Martintown Community Church in Martintown, Wisconsin).