What Works as a Center?
Our grandson, Jack, is graduating from high school this weekend. By the time you read this, he will have already moved the tassel.
Of course he’s not alone. It’s graduation season, and so we’re already seeing video clips of graduation speeches from around the nation. Even speakers chosen for their celebrity rather than their academic chops seem intent on offering some wisdom to these newly minted young adults. And so they speak about dreaming big, remembering their roots, making a difference, etc.
What wisdom would you offer from that podium? Being neither a celebrity nor an academic, I would likely offer something like what I offered in a number of pastoral settings over the years. It maps pretty well onto young adults as they launch into the world. Jack is graduating from a Christian school, which makes it simple to draw upon biblical wisdom. But I think these themes could be cast in a more generic way in a public-school setting. Here’s what I would say to Christian students:
“I hope that you’ll put your relationship with the Lord at the center of your lives. There are many reasons that the first commandment is the first commandment! It’s not just right, it’s good – and good for life. Loving the Lord brings abundance to life. And it lets all of the other parts of life find their proper places. That means that your careers, friendships, marriage, kids, material attainments, etc, can each serve their own secondary purposes, and not be counted on to fill the role of life’s primary purpose, or to satisfy life’s deepest needs.”
You get the idea. And of course there would need to be some humor and a tear-jerking story. (Talk about an easy setting for jerking tears!)
That makes the message sound easier to get across than it really is. That’s because no one with any sense is going to say to themselves, “I’m going to make my career advancement the main purpose of my life.” Nor will they say, “I think getting a Maserati will be my highest goal.” We all fancy ourselves as having higher goals than that. Even so, these lesser pursuits somehow end up making their way to the top of our priority lists. How so?
John Calvin famously said, “The human heart is a perpetual idol factory.” He wasn’t so much describing a rational process of choosing idols, as he was a natural yearning for something that will meet our deepest needs. And so our hearts are always on the hunt for anything that will satisfy those inner hungers.
The scripture makes plain that there is only One who does. And we can choose, and choose, and choose again to put Him at the center. Repeated choosing is essential, and it is aided by patterns of living that habituate reliance on the One – like the classic Christian disciplines of worship, scripture study, fellowship, service, etc.
And why would such repeated choices and spiritual disciplines be necessary? Because Calvin was right. Even for Christians the factory never goes entirely out of business. And its products are toxic for abundant living.
That’s starting to sound more like a sermon series than a graduation speech. I guess it’s well that I’ve never been asked to deliver such a speech!
God bless those who are, because those receiving diplomas need some wisdom to go with their knowledge. And for a few minutes they may actually be listening. Bless them!
And let the goofy hats fly high!