Last evening I had the opportunity to speak at Montpelier's Baccalaureate service so I thought I would share my speech with the rest of you.
I want
to do something a little different for a few minutes and I want you to close
your eyes(Now if you are reading this you can't close them for obvious reasons). And I want you to imagine what you were like when you were five
years old. I imagine we can all find something to laugh at about our five year
old self. And now I want you to think about the answer you might have given
someone if they asked what you wanted to be when you grew up, you might have
said a firefighter, doctor, president, astronaut, cowboy, professional athlete,
batman, vet or teacher. When you would tell them your dream they didn’t tell
you that you couldn’t do it, but rather they would just smile and nod. Because
you see at that age anything was possible in your eyes. The stars were the
limit and there was nothing that was going to stop you. I am sure there were
many times that you used a cardboard box as a spaceship or would shoot hoops
with an invisible crowd cheering you on. But as time moved on and you grew
older you started to realize that maybe becoming Batman or Wonder Woman wasn’t quite
as achievable as you once thought. That maybe you should start thinking about
what you really wanted to be when you grew up because people no longer just
smile and nod when you tell them you want to be a cowboy. And so you began a
process of determining what it is you really wanted to be. (open your eyes)
When I was asked to speak to you, I was a little bit
surprised and I wondered what I would have to say to you, as just a few short
years ago I sat in your place. Prior to tonight I was given a just a little bit
of information about your class like your motto, song and colors. Your class
song “Hall of Fame” by The Script is what struck me and has been on my mind
often as I have prepared for tonight. This song, a familiar tune about fulfilling
your dreams, silencing the critics and telling yourself that you can be the
greatest and when you do those things people will remember you. Well I am here
to tell you that greatness lies deeper than awards and material possessions and
it’s something that cannot be achieved alone. If I were to ask you to name the
top 5 weathliest people in the world could you? Or what about the last five Heisman
trophy winners? Chances are you probably couldn’t, you could maybe guess but
you wouldn’t know for sure. The point is, none of us remember the headliners of
yesterday. The answers to those questions I just asked are no second-rate
achievers. They’re the best in their fields. But the applause dies. Awards
tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with
their owners. But if I were to ask you to list a few teachers or coaches who
aided your journey through school I bet you wouldn’t hesitate. Or if I were to
ask you to name five people who taught you something worthwhile you could.
These questions were easier to answer, why? Because the people who make a
difference in your life aren’t the ones with the most credentials, the most
money, or the most awards. They’re the ones who care. Think about it, what was
different about these individuals that made a lasting impression on you? These
individuals achieved greatness, but it wasn’t a greatness that was all about
them.
The greatness that was in them was put there by God. The
truth is, we cannot talk about greatness without talking about God. You can be
the best of the best but if you don’t have Jesus Christ none of that matters.
Bobby Bowden, former Florida State football coach tells a story from his
baseball career at Howard College. Allow me to tell his story…Coach Bobby
Bowden dreamed of the day that he would hit a homerun in fact he was the only
member of the baseball team who had never hit a home run. In a home game
against Auburn, Bowden hit the ball hard, and, although it didn’t get high, it
was a line drive between shortstop and second base. "It gets
through," he said. "I flip that bat and take off for first base. All
I want to do is hit the inside of the bag and get to second, so I sort of slide
my foot against that bag as I’m going to second. "I can see the ball. It
got through the centerfielder and the left fielder, too. It’s rolling, and
they’re running and chasing the ball. I hit second base. I can’t see the ball
anymore, and I look at the third base coach. He’s waving me home. I hit third
base, and I start for home, and he says, ‘But hurry.’ Boy, I start running to
home plate. Meanwhile, the centerfielder gets the ball and fires it to the
shortstop. The shortstop takes it and fires that ball home. "Their catcher
is squatted down and blocking the plate. I’m running as hard as I can. All of a
sudden, his eyes start getting big, and I think, ‘Oh, that ball is about here.’
"I hit him as hard as I can hit him. I try to run right through him. About
the time the ball hits his mit, I hit him, and that bull jumps up in the air.
We scramble around. I reach over the top, and hit home plate. The ump says,
‘You’re safe.’ "It’s a home run. I’ve never had one. I’m so excited and get
up to brush the red mud off me. The players come off the bench and start
shaking my hand. "Then, the first baseman yells to the catcher, ‘Hey,
John, throw me the ball.’ The catcher gets the ball and throws that thing to
the first baseman. He touches first base. The first base ump says, ‘You’re out.
You missed first base.’ "I distinctly remember getting second...and first,
I guess I missed it. I was out. I never got a home run in college.” "Here
is the significance of that story, Coach Bowden said, If you remember anything
I say, remember this, as you go through life: First base is Jesus Christ. If
you do everything else you could think of, to get to heaven, it won’t work. You
must touch first base. "
In a few years from now, some of you might be
discovering a cure for cancer while others are teaching and leading the next
generation of young people. Whatever it is, greatness is possible but greatness
doesn’t matter unless you touch first base. In Mark 10:27, Jesus was talking to
his disciples and he said to them “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But not
with God. Everything is possible with God.” Dreams, greatness and success are
all impossible and mean nothing, humanly speaking. But dreams, greatness and
success are possible and mean everything with God.
You
are about to leave a place that you have always known, a place of comfort. You
are about to embark on your own journey, a journey that has been 17 years in
the making. A journey that looks daunting, scary and a maybe a little unclear.
You will no longer have your parents, grandparents, friends, coaches and
teachers alongside of you telling you what to do every step of the way. Your
parents can’t tell you what to do all the time because you won’t be around
them. It’s your choice whether you make your bed in the morning or if you wash
all your clothes together in one load or whether you get up for church on
Sunday mornings.
It is now time to make decisions for yourself.
As Bobby Bowden said, “if you don’t have faith in Jesus Christ, everything else
doesn’t matter.
I am not sure if you realized this or not but the world
wants you to fail. There are statistics after statistics that say many of you
won’t finish what you start, that you won’t get a job, make enough money, or
that you will even lose your faith during the college years. Well I am here to
challenge you to prove those statistics wrong, to not let the world define you
and it starts by making your faith your own. It is time for you to realize that
it is now your decision to pursue Jesus or not. The easy part is over. Ephesians 1:4-5 says, "Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. You have already been chosen by Christ, now it is your
decision to choose him. The world is always going to be pulling you in the
opposite direction of Jesus. The world wants you to have nothing to do with a
God who saves and everything to do with a world full of temporary titles and
month to month plans.
If you want to be the greatest, if you want to be the
best, then you first have to choose the greatest. Choose Christ to be the
center of your life. Choose to pursue a personal relationship with
him, choose to make it your very own and not what everyone else says.
The
scholarships, awards, degrees and promotions that you achieve in the coming
years will mean nothing unless you have first stepped on first base, unless you
have first chosen Christ. There are two lessons things that we can learn about
greatness from Jesus. The first is that greatness was never about him. While
Jesus was made holy like God, he was also human like us. He ate, drank, talked
and walked like us and he knew that whatever he did was to bring glory to his
Father. Colossians 3:17 says “And
whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving
thanks through him to God the Father.” We were put on this earth to
manifest the glory of God. In each of you is a light, a light that reflects the
love and grace of God. That light was meant to shine and not meant to be
hidden. Jesus tells us again in scripture that, "You are the light of the world - like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Intead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house." You were born for greatness that comes from Christ, but if you don't allow yourself to achieve that greatness you are robbing God of the glory he deserves. Letting your light shine won't always come easy. In fact if you want to become great, if you want to
become successful you have to force yourself to be uncomfortable. You have to
allow yourself to be used by God in situations that aren’t always easy and that
aren’t perfect. Success is the result of how you work and prepare and practice
and how you strive to become better every day. It’s a commitment that the best
make every week, every day, every hour and every moment. When you strive to get
better, you will. And it is in our desire to be uncomfortable and get better
that we are making those around us better too. Marianne Williamson says in her
famous poem “Our Greatest Fear” this, “And as we let our light shine, we
unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.” When others see us
striving to become pursuing they want to do the same.
The
second thing about greatness that we can learn from Jesus is that greatness is
not achieved alone. Take a moment to look around you at all the familiar faces.
These are the faces of the people who have loved, supported, encouraged,
cheered and challenged you over the last 18 years. There are the faces of the
people who have raised and molded you into the person that you are today! Jesus
too knew that he could not do it alone and so he too surrounded himself with
others to help him. He had 12 guys who stuck with him through thick and thin.
Put even the guys closest to Jesus weren’t perfect. One betrayed him and
another denied him. If you want to be great then you need to recognize that you
cannot do it alone. So surround yourself with the dreamers and the doers, the
believers and the thinkers but most of all surround yourself with those who see
greatness within you. Surround yourself with followers of Christ who are going
to encourage you as you continue on your own journey with Him. Ecclesiastes 4
reminds us the importance of community, "Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble." These
are the people who understand, they know where you are and where you are going.
They understand and relate to the challenges, the set-backs, and the effort it
requires to build or rebuild. It is a painful and lonely journey with no one to
talk to or relate to. You are soon going to be leaving the community that you
have known for the last 18 years but you will soon find a new community that
will support you in your next season of life.
As you leave from this place tonight and this
community in the coming days, weeks and months, go and be students, be teachers,
be politicians, be preachers, be believers, be leaders, be astronauts, be
champions, be truth seekers. But remember you were born with the light of
Christ inside of you and by achieving greatness you are allowing that light to
shine, but it cannot be done alone. The best make Jesus Christ the center of
their lives and realize that apart from him they can do nothing. Go and achieve
greatness…Christ-like greatness.
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