It’s Graduation Season
Spring dances in and drags with it another season of commencement ceremonies, and along for the ride are graduation speeches. Colleges and Universities compete for the best and most popular to come grace their school with wisdom, wit, or, many times, blowhardiness. And speakers are often remembered for a line or sentence that someone else probably wrote for them. Here are a few examples.
Trust your gut, keep throwing darts at the dartboard. Don’t listen to the critics, and you will figure it out.” –Will Ferrell, University of Southern California
"The trick is to listen to your instinct, grab the opportunity when it presents itself, and then give it your all". - Helen Mirren, Tulane University
“Be present. I would encourage you with all my heart just to be present. Be present and open to the moment that is unfolding before you. Because, ultimately, your life is made up of moments. So don’t miss them by being lost in the past or anticipating the future.” –Jessica Lange, Sarah Lawrence College
“I’ve found that nothing in life is worthwhile unless you take risks. Fall forward. Every failed experiment is one step closer to success. You’ve got to take risks. You will fail at some point in your life. Accept it. You will lose. You will embarrass yourself. You will suck at something. There is no doubt about it. Never be discouraged. Never look back. Give everything you’ve got. And when you fall throughout life, fall forward.” –Denzel Washington, University of Pennsylvania
"Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is, but much to learn you still have" -Yoda (OK, I made that one up...but it's good, eh?)
At best, there might be a line or two worth remembering (unless you recall Adm. McCraven's UT speech which was epic. You can see it again here), and at worst, these speeches are often self-congratulatory, or a platform to rant on a specific theme, or an attempt to be cool and hip and humorous. For all the graduation speeches I have endured, the one word that sums up most of them might be ... "forgettable". Platitudes and cliches and jokes that fall flat seem pretty dang common.
But what if it was folks from the pages of scripture standing in front of the crowd giving marching orders to new commencementeers? What message might they deliver, and what's the line that sticks with you? Here are some thoughts about a line I definitely would not forget to remember within their talk.
I could see Joshua challenging,
"Be strong and courageous!"
Or the Judge Deborah getting the army ready for battle,
"Arise! For this is the day in which the LORD has given into your hands; behold, the LORD has gone out before you."
Isaiah might say,
“Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, and plead the widow's cause."
Or MIcah could include,
“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
And Paul would be sure to have this line,
"Walk worthy of the calling by which you have been called."
Peter would chime in,
"Live as obedient children before a good God. Don't let your character be molded by the desires of your ignorant days, but be holy in every corner of your lives, for the one who called you is himself holy.
How about Jesus?
"In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world."
Now, those would be commencement talks I couldn't ignore, let alone forget. The Bible is full of faith-life lessons wrapped in real-life living. Each event recorded holds lessons for us to uncover and use. Think about what can be learned from these lines written above, taken as a whole.
Peter and Paul carry a similar message that we as Jesus followers have the chance to choose every morning what kind of person we want to be. To call ourselves children of God moves us to face all of life with a desire and behaviors that match who we say we are. Daily choices to not be molded by politics or social media or even friends, but by Jesus, and then choosing to live along those lines define believers.
Isaiah and Micah look to their world (and ours) and call out for us not to just be holy for our own benefit before God, but to extend the love and grace we have experienced to every corner of our corner of the world. Justice and mercy. Service and kindness. Caring for those struggling. These are calling cards well worth carrying.
Deborah and Joshua remind us that we are engaged in struggle, first within ourselves to stay Jesus-centered, and then facing forces outside who would put us and others down. The attitudes of strength, courage, and remembering that this is all God's deal will carry you far.
And Jesus knows living this way can trouble any heart, weigh it down, and grow discouraged. His message reflects what we see every day, that we live in a broken world, but that we can live hopefully as we look to him to make all things right. Jesus triumphed over every challenge, even death, and we are in him and he in us.
Together, let's listen to our commencement speech and take the lessons to heart. You and I are called, every day, to choose to live lives that look remarkably like Jesus, full of truth and compassion to all we meet, and courageously ready to call for justice and showing mercy just like God did toward us, knowing that we have a savior who has gone before us and will welcome us home when it is our time.
How that looks is that individual pursuit toward things in life that matter. But however it looks, let's get to living it.
Let's toss the mortar boards and commence!
And Music for the Week...Pairs!
And a couple of chuckles for all you chuckleheads...
One day God was looking down at Earth and saw all of the rascally behavior going on.
So He called one of His angels and sent the angel to Earth for a time. When he returned, he told God, "Yes, it is bad on Earth; 95% are misbehaving and only 5% are not."
God thought for a moment and said, "Maybe I had better send down a second angel to get another opinion." So God called another angel and sent him to Earth for a time.
When the angel returned, he went to God and said, "Yes, it's true. The Earth is in decline; 95% are misbehaving, but 5% are being good."
God was not pleased. So He decided to email the 5% who were good to encourage them and give them a little something to help them keep going.
Do you know what the email said?
Okay, I was just wondering, because I didn't get one either.
__________
The math teacher saw that Harold wasn't paying attention in class so she called on him and said, "Harold! What are 10 and 22 and 66 and 44?"
Lil Harold quickly replied, "FOX, ESPN2, Hallmark, and the Cartoon Network."