The Commencement Speech

Well, it’s that time of year — young men and women, across the nation, donning cap and gown, processing down an aisle, listening to speech or two and then they are off to begin their new lives.

So this week’s post is a commencement speech of sorts — one that I dedicate to my own daughter and the class of 2019.

Without further ado, here we go…

Let us begin at the beginning — your beginning. From the beginning, you were greatly loved. Despite any of the challenges that may have faced your parents, you were loved by them, and without a doubt, you were perfectly loved by God.

You were literally loved into existence and, even now, it is Love that keeps you in existence.

As long as there is breath in your lungs, I hope you remember this, you are greatly loved and your ultimate destiny is to make it back to Love.

So aim for Love. Don’t compromise on this, because if you do, you will have lost the entire reason for your existence in the first place.

Sure, money, fame, power and popularity are all convenient things to have at your disposal — but they can never satisfy you the way that truly loving somebody and being loved in return will satisfy you.

In fact, those other things often lead to absolute misery. So don’t get distracted by them or set your heart on acquiring them above the most important thing in life.

Having said that, if you do happen to find yourself in possession of things like money, fame, power or popularity, then use them for good.

Use them to help those who are helpless, to love those who feel unloved and to stand in opposition to the forces that want to oppress and enslave you and your fellow man or woman.

These are the noble purposes for which money, fame, power and popularity should be used — but it will be impossible to wield these things in noble ways, without the essential characteristic of courage.

If you are to do any good or noble thing in this world, you must be courageous.

You must be willing to lose all of those other things, for the sake of doing what is right.

Doing the “right” thing in this world will make you the “enemy” of those who want to oppress you and your fellow man.

These enemies don’t want you to be brave. They wants you to shut up, get in line and go with the flow.

You have to be willing to accept that you will make enemies in this life, simply because you want to do the good — resolve to do the good anyways!

The good news is that the more you stand up and fight oppression and do the good, the easier it will get to do it the next time.

So dare to be brave. Never back down when the greater good is at stake.

Fight for the greater good, like you are fighting for your best friend — because in many ways, you are fighting for your best friend.

His name is Jesus.

Don’t believe He’s your best friend? Then obviously, you haven’t taken the time to get to know Him.

My best word of advice for you in this life is that you take the time to get to know Him.

Pray everyday. Spend time with Him. Love Him. Adore Him.

If you get your relationship with Jesus right, then I promise that all other relationships in your life will fall more easily into place as well.

The greatest lie you could ever believe is that Jesus wants to make you miserable. It was the First Lie that the Devil told our First Parents, and they believed him.

Don’t fall into that same trap.

It’s laughable really, considering He literally went to Hell and back to save us from our sin — and He would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

If you refuse to listen to that lie and get to know Jesus, you will discover the greatest friend you could ever hope to have, has been there loving you all along.

So don’t be afraid to get to know Him, because His plans for you are for your good and for your greatest possible happiness .

Speaking of Happiness. Don’t waste your life pursuing it. Happiness is an elusive thing. The second you think you’ve got it in your grasp, it escapes you.

Happiness is one of those mysterious realities that is a byproduct of living your life well.

Pursue the good, the true and the beautiful in this world, and you will often discover happiness in the process — pursue happiness and you will most definitely fall short of your goal.

A word of warning, while pursuing the good (and the true and the beautiful) in this life, you must be prepared to discover some things about yourself that you did not want to discover.

It will inevitably lead to a greater awareness of your own weakness. This can be a very unpleasant discovery to make!

We all want to be the hero, and yet, so often we fail miserably at this thing called life.

Take heart in this, if you allow it to, those failings will lead to the second most important attribute anybody who wants to do great things with their life must possess: Humility.

It is second only to love, and if you want to do any lasting good in this life, it must begin with love and be fueled by humility.

Humility helps us to rely, not upon our strength, but on the strength of God.

If you are to accomplish any lasting good in this lifetime, you must move beyond your own goodness and strength and be rooted in the goodness and strength of God.

It is in our weakness that we learn to open ourselves up to being channels of His love and goodness and power in this world.

Be prepared to be amazed by the things that God will accomplish through you.

In times of bodily and mental weakness, remind yourself that you are “fearfully and wonderfully made” and that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you”.

Many a time, I have reached the end of my strength, close to giving up, and it only took one person to tell me that I could do it to give me the strength to continue on.

This was especially true for me, as a mother, in the midst of my struggle to give birth to a baby — but it is equally true for all men and women trying to give birth to any great work in their lives.

So I share with you what others have shared with me: God will surely give you His strength to complete the good work that He has for you.

On those particularly difficult days, I hope you remember that where your strength ends, the strength of God begins.

I hope this truth will give you the strength to get up again and continue on when all you feel like doing is giving up.

Love is in the “getting up” and in the “continuing” , especially when exhaustion and fear tell you to stay down and to cease trying.

Never give up! Never give in! Always resolve to keep moving forward in faith and hope and love.

There are so many other things that could be said, but I will leave you with one last thought.

You were not made for this broken world. You were made for Heaven.

NO matter how hard life gets, how many dissapointments and setbacks you face, just remember that this life is not the end. You were made for Heaven, and it is towards Heaven that you must Aim.

If you want to be truly successful in this life, then aim for Heaven — which essentially means to aim for perfect Love.

The people who get this life right are those who have figured out that the meaning of life is not in the jobs you have, the titles you don, or in the things you possess.

The real meaning of life is in learning to properly love God and the people He has placed around you — really love them.

This would require that you learn the invaluable art of loving people and using things.

People are meant to be cherished. Things are meant to be used. Not the other way around.

Work hard to get this right.

And on the days that you get it wrong, just remember this: The Christian life is all about new beginnings.

Every confession is a new opportunity to begin again. Every day is another opportunity to strive to get it right.

So let us begin again today — and every day — until that last day in which I hope we will all hear Jesus speak the words we are truly longing to hear,

“Well done, good and faithful friend, now enter into the eternal joy of my kingdom”.

Godspeed, Class of 2019!

Sharing over at Kelly’s.