"Get a Life!" Baccalaureate Sermon 26 May 2002 Part One

“Get a Life!” – Baccalaureate Sermon Part I

26 May 2002

This week, I summarize the major points of last week’s Baccalaureate Sunday sermon, “Get A Life!”  The text came from Deuteronomy 30:15-20.  On the verge of the Promised Land, Moses offers the people of Israel a fundamental choice: blessings and curses, prosperity and destruction and life and death.  He challenges them to choose the Lord and thereby choose life.  High school and collegiate graduates face a similar choice.  Will they find the wherewithal to determine the unique lives that God has graciously given them?  Moreover, will they cultivate the confidence to define and pursue their dreams and goals?  In accordance with Proverbs 3:5-8, as they choose to follow the Lord’s guidance, they will find life.

I.  The Creator’s Gift of a Unique Life

Science affirms our absolute uniqueness as individuals.  No one else shares our DNA, fingerprints, hair or teeth.  Those distinctions represent the inimitable talents, gifts and passions that God gives each of us.  More significantly, God privileges us with the possibility of becoming His chosen vessels.  He uses us to disclose the secrets of science; depict the majesty of His imagination through music and art, establish justice through the law, mentor a future generation through teaching and education and meet the needs of suffering humankind through the ministry of helps.  Choosing life requires finding the divine spark within us.  God has something specific for each of us to accomplish to His honor and glory and in service to humankind.  That personal mission is the His gift of a unique life to us.

II.  Abundant and Eternal Life in Christ

Howard Thurman taught that leading a purposeful life eradicates the fear of death.  In Christ, God gives us abundant and eternal life, which begins the very instant, that we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior.  Liberty from fear and the agony of human limitations and existence are found in a relationship with God in Christ.  Indeed, our hearts remain restless until we find Christ.  Life in Him is relational, experiential and practical.  It yields the enduring things: faithfulness, gentleness, goodness, joy, kindness, love, patience, peace and self-control.  With those characteristics, one can truly experience the joy of life!

III.  Love

Arguably, one is not alive until one knows what it means to love and to be loved.  Love is a triangle that includes God, self and others.  As one loves God and self, then one can love others.  In the fullness of time, I hope the graduates find a lifelong companion who will assist them in becoming the best child of God of which they are capable.  Charles Dickens, in his classic novel, David Copperfield, says, “There is not a disparity in marriage like unsuitability of mind and purpose.”  Hopefully, the graduates will find a friend for the journey of life with whom they share the same mind and purpose.  Pulling together, they can achieve collectively what would elude them individually.

"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.