"Get a Life!" - Baccalaureate Sermon 26 May 2002 Part Two

“Get a Life!” – Baccalaureate Sermon Part II

26 May 2002

IV.  Dreams and Goals

Sarah Vaughn sang a jazz song, “You’ve got to have a dream.  You’ve got to have a dream.  How you gonna have a dream come true, if you don’t have a dream?”  Our lifelines are possibly tied to the dreams of our youth.  I hope that this year’s graduates will stay true to the dreams of their youth.  Periodically, life forces you to check the dream file.  When you reach certain milestones in life (graduation, marriage, children, job, promotion, etc.), consulting the “dream file” is in order.  These milestones also include occurrences that we characterize negatively: termination, downsizing, death of a loved one, a health crisis, a broken engagement or a divorce.  If channeled to a meaningful purpose and handled with spiritual versatility, those events hold tremendous blessings for us.  They are the doorway to a new vista in life.  Lastly, they can be the very catalyst that leads to fulfillment of our dreams.

Goals are the practical steps that we take in the direction of accomplishing our dreams.  We must write down our goals (Habakkuk 2:4).  In fact, you do not have a goal until you have put it in writing.  Norman Vincent Peale recommends that we carry an index card containing our goals on our person.  Nonetheless, we should utilize imagination to fire up our goals.  George Lucas, the creator, producer and director of the Stars Wars trilogy, says, “You can’t do it unless you can imagine it.”  Carl G. Jung suggests that we engage in the spiritual exercise of active imagination in which we see ourselves succeeding.  Peale encourages us to affirm daily our dreams and goals.  Succinctly, Henry David Thoreau encourages us, “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.  Live the life that you have imagined.” 

V.  Knowledge

At ninety years of age, the great U.S. Supreme Court justice, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., read Plato’s Republic “to improve his mind.”  We must be ever growing and learning.  College is one of two things.  It is either the gateway to the ocean of ideas and knowledge or it is a mental and conceptual prison.  In the former instance, one begins the lifelong process of personal development and spiritual growth, which necessitate the discipline of learning.  If one refuses to grow, then one will leave the collegiate years imprisoned to the uncritical acceptance of one’s teachers learning.

VI.  Work

There is no magic in life!  The ultimate fulfillment of one’s dreams and goals depends heavily upon one’s willingness to work.  No one can nullify your ambitions.  Also, no one can tell you that you cannot achieve your dreams and goals.  However, if you do not work toward them, you will not realize them.  Hard work is the pathway to success and excellence.  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said it best, “The heights of men sought and kept; Were not obtained by sudden flight; But they while their companions slept; Toiled upward in the night.”

VII.  Manners

My late paternal grandfather, Sammie Singletary, Sr., taught me the importance of manners.  He said that manner would take me places that intelligence, talent, looks and success never could.  For the graduates, always remember to have good manners.

Lastly, the graduates need for things for the journey of life: (1) good ears to hear the beat of the divine drummer, (2) a mirror to reflect one’s progress in life, (3) strong mental elbows so they can think for themselves and (4) the Word of God, a lamp unto their pathway and a light unto their feet.