Baccalaureate Speech 2017 – Chris

Below is the full text of Chris’ Baccalaureate Speech. (Once Wayne gets back from Guatemala, we hope to post his as well)

 

In some form or another, you have probably heard someone tell you to follow your dreams. If you count all of the times such a message has been subliminally or explicitly directed at you in film, television, social media, literature, or a motivational speech in one of your classes here at our school, I’m sure that it would total roughly around 18,000 times.

“Follow your dreams.”

“You can do anything you put your mind to.”

“One of you may be the future President of the USA.”

The American dream and many successful people in our country have verified this notion that hard work, sweat, desire, and passion can help you achieve anything. You can do all things… through Christ… right? Even the way that Philippians 4:13 is commonly invoked, attests to this idea that you get to pick your dreams, and you summon the power of your God like a good-luck charm to help you actualize them. Barring a few genetic limitations… because some of you won’t ever be able to dunk in the NBA…you have the potential to accomplish almost anything you put your mind to. Now, instead of launching into my normal critique of such an approach to life, I want to affirm the undeniable truth that it contains.

You guys are winners. The proportion of you that have been admitted into colleges, some of them quite prestigious, far surpasses the national average for high school graduates. You will go on from this place and dabble in many different disciplines until you choose one in which to become an expert. Let’s put on our imagination helmets for a second and consider what it might be like to accomplish a few potential dreams:

You go on to study politics and law. The average law student spends between 400-600 hours studying and preparing to pass the bar exam. Since you want to be the best, you study far more than that and you pass the first time. You work your way up in a small firm, build your resume and reputation, and get accepted into another firm that works in the specialty you desire to pursue. Your passion and dedication gains you fame in that particular discipline. You start your own firm and your influence spreads. People interview you on TV about the major cases you work. Celebrities seek you out. You’re one of the few lawyers that virtually every American knows. You are one of the greats. You’ve made it.

Or maybe you take your innovation, creativity, and people skills and apply them in the field of business. You’ll identify a gaping need in the market, analyze the trends, and carve out your own niche for your business. You’ll take a startup and expand it to a multi-national brand in technology, exportation, media, or underwear. Your success in your own business ventures earn you high positions at other companies. You are offered multi-million dollar contracts to take businesses from good to great. To save dying companies. To rethink the way that the world does business. You are a world changer. You sit at the top of your pile of wealth and notoriety. You’ve made it.

Or what if you take that guitar, that piano, that sweet voice, or that ability to turn a phrase and force your way to the top of the masses trying to make a name for themselves in Hollywood, Nashville, or New York. Your avant garde yet accessible art, acting, or music pleases the elites and the common man alike. Your hard work, good marketing, and your dedication to your craft shoots you to places you never dreamed of being. Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift seek you out for advice on career success. Banksy asks for help on a stencil. James Cameron asks you to take the lead in his next film. Champagne glass in hand at an exclusive Hollywood party… You’ve made it.

Maybe you take what seems to be the ultimate plunge into Christianity and study Theology. After 6 years of theological training and plenty of student loans, you work in youth ministry for some years, and then transition into the position of an associate pastor. Eventually, you find yourself being called or led to start your own church that hits a target homogenous demographic that makes your churchplant turn into a megachurch overnight. You write books about God that sell millions, and people weep when they meet you. You become one of the few theologians that make it on the cover of time magazine for some insight on God that you introduce. You are one of the most influential Christian figures currently living. You’ve made it.

Each of these paths is absolutely possible for you. You can dedicate yourself to pursuing your dreams, and take hold of them.

You can do it. But then what?

When you started in law, you wanted to be the best. And then you became the best… everything you wanted to be… but then what? You achieve your dream but you still need to live life. Your corvette needs an oil change. You need to pay taxes. Your dog peed on the rug again. Now what?

When you started your small business in your garage, you dreamed of making your first million. But then, you got it. So, you made plans to make ten million. Then you dreamed of making a billion. Then what?

When you wrote your first song you dreamed of playing a Friday night at the hip local venue. Then you became a regular there and you dreamed of playing somewhere bigger. Then you found yourself touring the world. Then what?

When you started in ministry you just wanted to help change one person’s life at a time. Then you wanted to wisely guide your flock of a hundred. Then you dreamed of making an impact on millions beyond the reach of your local church community through your video series, your book deal, your sermons. But then what?

You can achieve your way to the top of whatever mountain that you define as success, but when you reach the top, I can guarantee… you’ll be disappointed.

The problem with our dreams, or should I say, our fantasies, is not that they are beyond our reach, but that they are actually achievable. Philosopher Peter Rollins boldly states, “You can fulfill your dreams… Just be prepared for the abject horror.” We can only sustain a false hope in attaining happiness in some distant dream… as long as that dream remains distant. The moment we grab it, we will see it for the powerless idol that it truly is. So, by all means, pursue those dreams. And for your sake, I hope that you fulfill them as quickly as possible so that you can learn sooner just how bankrupt they are. That the thing that robs us of our joy in the present, will not be able to bring us joy in the future.

One of the wealthiest, wisest, and most powerful men that ever lived is King Solomon. He is such a hugely significant figure that he wrote books of the Bible, and I am talking about him 3000 years later. He had access to every dream we could ever fathom, and more. But after all he had accomplished, a political empire, unfathomable wealth, close to a thousand women dedicated to pleasing him, and world renowned wisdom, he says these sad refrains,

“Meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless.”

“Generations come and go. All will die and be forgotten.”

“It is a chasing after the wind.”

The danger of our dreams, is that we might spend our whole lives chasing that next degree, next raise, next goal, next fantasy… but then miss out on what God is doing NOW. We might waste our lives sacrificing everything to achieve our dreams, but then never present ourselves as living sacrifices to God. This is why Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes 8:15 “So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.” To Solomon, joy is not found in reaching some far-off goal, or finally arriving at your fantasy. Joy is found in the middle of your toil, in acknowledging that your life is a gift from God, and living it.

As you enter the next season of your life, you will undoubtedly spend a good amount of time dreaming about your future, fabricating fantasies about what that will look like, creating plans for how to make your dreams a reality. And that’s good. Some of you will even apply some of the things you have learned here at UCA and try to integrate those dreams into God’s dream for the world, His Kingdom, and his plan to restore Shalom. And we all want you to do those things. We want you to dream big for the sake of the Kingdom of God. But, I want to challenge you to consider what God wants you to do today. What does it mean for you to be obedient today? How can you be the type of person that is able to find joy in the work that God has given you today?

Abraham Joshua Heschel in his book The Sabbath talks about the tension that exists between space and time. In modern technological society we spend our most precious resource, time, to accrue things in space. We use our minutes, hours, and days to build financial empires, construct buildings, amass possessions, and raise monuments to our accomplishments. But we have it all wrong. Our significance does not come from what we are able to build and collect in space, but rather what we have done with our time. Heschel admonishes, “We must not forget that it is not a [material] thing that lends significance to a moment; it is the moment that lends significance to things.” It is not your cap, your gown, or the address of 10900 Civic Center Drive that creates significance. If you dressed up like this 2 years ago and stood in this room it would be a meaningless ruse. But this moment itself, right now, is significant.

Christ points to this same reality when he says that the Kingdom of God “does not come with observation, nor will they say ‘see here’ or ‘see there’ for the Kingdom of God is within you.” And He’s not saying that the GPS coordinates for the Kingdom are in your body, but rather that the Kingdom is able to break forth in and around you at any moment. Any moment.

I love you guys too much to encourage you to try to find significance in the things you accomplish and the trophies you earn. Your dreams will fail to give you meaning, and when they do, they will rob you of your joy. So instead, amass sacred time. Invite God into every minute of your life. Walk with God each day in obedience. Saturate your years on earth with sacred experiences. Consider your Creator in each moment of your life, and you will rob those dreams of their sting.