Recently I had the honor of giving a commencement address for students who were finishing both high school and eight grade. I hope that what I shared may be an encouragement to all who are preparing for a new season in life.
Teacher, administrators, parents, family and friends, and most of all to the graduates– thank you. It is an honor to be here as you celebrate your achievements and prepare for the road ahead.
When I was coordinating with your director on the details of this event, she asked me something that no one who has every given me a microphone has asked me before. She asked me how long I would like to speak! Now as I told her – this is a dangerous question. After all, I am someone who makes their living speaking publicly and I have been known to teach 3-hour classes, so I am obviously very comfortable talking for an extended length of time. However, it is to your benefit that as a college professor I have attended more than my fair of graduations and I have learned that what makes a great graduation speaker is not necessarily what they say, but how quickly they say it! So, my goal is to honor the hours of hard work you have already invested in getting to this day by keeping my words few and to the point.
And of course, it is important to recognize that there is a point to the pomp and circumstance of today. As graduation speakers throughout the country will recognize, there is a reason that this ceremony is often called a commencement. As much as it signals the end of your current journey, in equal measures it also commemorates the beginning of what comes next. And it is what comes next that I want to spend some time thinking about.
If you were to ask most graduates what the future holds, they may be able to give you some brief explanation of their plans and expectations. But the truth of the matter is that whatever they offer is a hypothesis, it is an educated guess. Their knowledge of the future is limited, and if the last few years have taught us anything, it is that we do a poor job projecting what tomorrow will bring. Even those of you who have carefully plotted out what you will be doing next year will be met with unanticipated situations and unexpected realities. Whatever you think you know about the future, the fact that you have not experienced it yet means that it is uncertain at best.
Yet, despite this lack of clarity, the future should not be something we fear. As has been stated in a variety of different ways, even if we do not know the future, we can know the One who holds the future in His hands. Or as Corrie ten Boom is quoted as saying, “we should never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” We may not know what tomorrow may bring, but we know the One who will bring the new day. And even when we don’t know what that day will hold, because we know of the kindness and the mercy, and the love and the faithfulness of our good God, we have no reason to tremble at what is unexpected. We have no reason to quake at what we can’t anticipate.
This is what the prophet Isaiah reminded the Israelites of in a time when their future was unclear. The safety and security of their land was being threatened, their enemies and the enemies of their God were all around. But even though they were surrounded by hostility, even though the nation itself was experiencing a spiritual decline – Isaiah reminded the people of God that they could still be filled with complete and perfect peace. We read of this promise in Isaiah 26:3 which states, “you keep him in perfect peace whose minds is fixed on you, because he trusts in you.” So in the midst of chaos and uncertainty, we can have an unfathomable and complete peace if we do two things – we trust in God and we fix our mind on Him.
Now having perfect peace sounds like a good thing, but we can still struggle with what this exhortation means practically. What exactly does it mean to fix our mind on God and how will our lives show that we trust in Him?
It means first that instead of focusing our thoughts on our circumstances, we focus them on His character. Fixing our mind on Him means that He is at the center of our attention, that He is our center and our first inclination. It means that our internal conversation is directed upwards rather than inwards, that His perspective is our priority and not that of those around us, or even our own. When we fix our minds on God, we remember both who He is and the works of grace that He has done in our lives. There is a reason that throughout the Old Testament God’s people are called to remember what He has done for them. When we remember God’s faithfulness in the past, when our mind recalls His goodness and His love, we are prepared to rely on Him for our future.
And relying on Him is exactly what it means to trust in Him. We depend on His Word, rather than on our own wisdom. We do the work that He has called us to do, and count on Him to provide our daily bread. Our confidence is not in our own strengths and abilities but instead we, as Isaiah 40 states, wait on the Lord, knowing that He will renew our strength, that He will help us mount up with wings like an eagle, running without growing weary and walking without growing faint. Trusting in God means that instead of holding onto and cultivating our anxieties, we cast our worries on Him because we know that He cares for us. It means that we rely on Him to be God – to be the caretaker of the Universe as well as our individual lives – knowing that if He is concerned for every sparrow that falls to the ground, He will take far greater care of each of His kids.
This is how we ensure that we are people who are filled with His peace – regardless of what the future holds. We fix our mind on Him, focusing our attention on who He is and His faithfulness in our lives. And we depend on Him – trusting that He will give us everything we need for what He has called us to do.
So, as you prepare to enter this next season of life, this is my encouragement and exhortation to you. While graduates across the nation are hearing speeches that tell them that they can be anything that they want to be, they just need to trust in themselves, I am here to remind you that this is, quite frankly, a terrible idea. You and I can’t even predict what will happen tomorrow, let alone what will transpire in the days ahead. But if we want to make the most of those days, we will seek to be people who, regardless of what the future holds, are filed with peace in the midst of chaos, who trust in the certainty of our God, despite the uncertainty of the world. Graduates, regardless of what your answer is to the question, “so what comes next?” – you can be people who are kept in His perfect peace as you daily focus your attention of Who God is, and as you do so, showcase your reliance and dependance on Him alone.
Congratulations graduates. As you go forth may you use each and every day to make a difference for God’s Kingdom. May you be men and women who are filled with His perfect peace.
