Commencement 2024

George Burns is reported to have said, “The secret of a good speech is to have a good beginning and a good ending, then having the two as close together as possible. O that commencement speakers would take this advice at graduation ceremonies this year!

All across our nation’s high school and college campuses or graduation arenas this month, graduates will gather with family and friends and hear sage advice from commencement speakers. Speakers who have life experience, successful careers or academic credentials will dispense life advice to young minds who have earned high school degrees. These are smart people at least by the suffix letters attached to their names!

Like a lot of man-centered advice, what will be shared will sound good and have some elements of truth, and yet in the end, it will be a counterfeit of biblical truth. I want to share three examples of what I mean and challenge you to live biblically:

Live your dream! Or, you can do anything if you put your mind to it. Or, believe in yourself. While there is some wisdom in encouraging graduates to be confident in their training and use it with diligence, the basic advice in these three similar statements is biblically off. The wisest of the wise according to the Bible wrote from experience in Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.”

Let me suggest that if a person adopts this worldly sage advice your dream will become a nightmare. You will find the object of your faith (yourself) faulty!

A slight but profound change in this advice is in order: instead of living your dream...you can do anything if you put your mind to it, change this sage advice to: live God’s dream –you can do anything He directs you to do.

The prophet Jeremiah when confronting Israel’s self-centered rebellion against their God, wrote in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare, and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (emphasis mine). It is His plans that Paul is referring to when he wrote Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.”

Live His Dream—you can do anything He leads you to do—trust in His ability and power not your own.

A second sage advice that has been taught in every Disney movie I have ever watched is: Follow your heart...do what your heart tells you to do (pursue what you are passionate about). While we should pursue doing the things we are gifted and enjoy in our life and vocations, the big problem with this advice is that none of us really knows our own heart. On top of that, every job we do or activity we enjoy will have parts or people that we will not enjoy or be passionate about. Once again the prophet Jeremiah addresses this problematic advice by telling us in Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?” A slight but profound change in this advice is in order: instead of following our hearts, we must commit to follow His Heart--make sure your passion is His passion.

Augustine, a church leader in the 300’s AD is reported to have said it this way: “Love the Lord with all your heart and all your mind and all your strength then do what you please.” David the songwriter of the Bible wrote in Psalm 37 “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

Follow His passion –love Him with everything and you will find what He wants to be your greatest desire.

A final sage advice that will be given at commencements this year is never quit –whatever you do, don’t quit or “practice makes perfect.” Certainly there is truth and wisdom in staying at a task or a promise when it is not going like we anticipated. The problem with this advice is that if we are not doing His will

we should quit it! While it is true that correct practice makes better performance, there are certain things that we should have never started and the sooner we quit the better! A slight but profound change in this advice is in order: instead of never quit no matter what, we should never quit doing what’s right no matter what! Galatians 6:9 “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”

There is a lot of truth in live your dream, follow your heart, and never quit. Like most man-centered advice it sounds somewhat true. Counterfeit things are not known for how different they are from the real thing, are they? A friend who was a banker once shared with me that after years of dealing with real currency, she became an expert at discerning counterfeit money just with the feel of it—she knew the real so well. Thank the Lord we have truest book of advice at the touch of a button on our phones. God’s love letter to us, the Bible, gives us confidence to know when our hearts are being deceived, when our dreams are really nightmares and when we should quit doing what we are doing and follow His will instead. Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

Let’s never stop studying the real thing. It is the greatest way to spot the fake.

Dr. David Ley is the President of Alaska Bible College.