Dear Friends of Mayer Lutheran High School,
A blessed Christmas and a joyous New Year to you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
On November 7, 1805, Captain William Clark, Co-Leader of the Corps of Discovery along with Meriwether Lewis, wrote in his journal, Ocian in view! O! the Joy. Clark’s exuberance was well stated, even with a slight misspelling. One year, six months, and a day after leaving St. Louis in search of the Northwest Passage, the group of hearty men, and one woman, saw the Pacific Ocean, even though it was still twenty miles away. The Pacific was their destination and they made it! The major goal of the trip was achieved and the Corps would head home to tell about it in the spring of 1806.
In the final days of 2020, we, too, may have exclaimed: “2021 is in view! O! the Joy.” If there was ever an eager anticipation of a new year to arrive, 2021 may be near the top of the list! This new year holds, like all new years, great hope in anticipation of better days and happier, healthier times.
I treasure the anticipation of a new day, new semester, new school year, new you-name-it. My joy in welcoming the journey into the unknown is wrapped up in my enthusiastic, optimistic nature that is mine as a child of God. At Mayer Lutheran High School, we do our best to instill the same attitude among our students. In less than five months, our Seniors will leave the safety, security, and predictability of a Christian schooling for the chaos and madness of college, military, or work. Real life will confront them in the face sooner or later. Through it all, we pray they will welcome the unknown and walk boldly into the future.
The future is not an easy journey. Like Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery, life is fraught with danger. They were able to accomplish the many goals of their trip laid down by President Thomas Jefferson by having talented leaders, discipline, and a strong sense of teamwork. So it is with us. As God’s children, we have a mission from Jesus to go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matt 28:19-20.
As we purposely seek to fulfill the “Great Commission” at Mayer Lutheran, we are tasked to prepare those leaders so essential to spreading the Gospel. We reinforce habits of discipline and teamwork first learned at home. And, we model a life worth living as God’s redeemed children. You see, with the provision that God the Father gives to us daily, the sure promise of eternal life won for us by Jesus on the cross, and the Holy Spirit’s power to allow us to live and speak as God’s ambassadors, we will enter a new year and beyond with confidence, optimism, and hope! You can count on it!
2021 is here! O! the Joy indeed!
