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Every year about this time, the Washington Post features the who's
who of college commencement speakers around
the country. This year President Bush spoke at West Point. Attorney
General John Ashcroft was the featured
speaker at Catholic University in Washington D.C.
Olympic gold medal skier Jonny Mosely, who lacks a college degree, spoke
to the graduates of the University of
California at Berkley. In May, Poet Maya Angelou was the featured
speaker at the University of Illinois
commencement.
Just this week I came across a stirring farewell talk given by the Apostle
Paul 2,000 years ago. The exhortation
was delivered along the coast of the Aegean Sea on the Western shore
of present-day Turkey. The leaders in the
church in Ephesus were the audience. Paul had spent more than
two years helping these leaders start the Ephesus
church, and now he was saying good-bye.
The passionate speech, recorded in Acts chapter 20, is full of candor
and insight. Interestingly, it is the only
talk in the book of Acts addressed to a solely Christian audience.
Here's my take on the highlights of the Apostle's
parting address:
Live humbly. God created you. He gives you your next breath. He is in control. Don't be a know it all.
Show genuine emotion. It's okay to shed tears over the pain you
see in the world. Millions are poor and
hurting. Their plight ought to move you to tears. Then
do what you can to help. How about intentionally living
more simply?
Endure trials. Every human has troubles. Jesus said, "In
this world you will have trouble. But be of good
cheer, I have overcome the world."
Accept the person God made you to be. Sorry, you really can't
be anything you want to be. Not many are of
noble birth. Few are great leaders. Even in a college town
with a prestigious university, only a tiny number of
people are brilliant. Discover who you are and be true to that
person.
Follow your heart. Accept the person God made you to be and then
give life all you have. The apostle Paul
certainly was clear about his own heart. "But my life is worth
nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me
by the Lord Jesus -- the work of telling others the Good News about
God's wonderful kindness and love."
Author Gil Bailie said, "Don't ask yourself what the world needs.
Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go
do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
Live a clean life. Keep short accounts. Don't hold grudges.
Quickly ask for forgiveness if you offend
someone. Pay off your debts fast, and always live within your
means. Owe people nothing except, as the Apostle
Paul instructs, "the debt of love." The world is in deep need
of compassionate, loving and tenderhearted people.
Keep your eyes open. It's essential to trust others but it's also
important to be, as Jesus once said, "as shrewd
as snakes and as innocent as doves."
Don't envy other people. Don't complain about what they have.
There are people who always will have more
money, intelligence and good looks than you do. But there are
billions who have much, much less than you have.
Be content with how God made you and with what he gives you.
Pull your weight. My Dad likes that one. Always work hard.
We were created to work. Work is partly
creative and partly cursed. Alas, work always will be overrated.
But hang in there. Don't constantly complain
about other people in your work place. And don't gripe incessantly
about the boss. Treat others the way you want
to be treated.
It is more blessed to give than receive. Those are Jesus' words
quoted by the Apostle Paul. Be generous with
your money and possessions. Don't let others label you as a stingy
person. Hold your material possessions
loosely.
Finally, pray. Especially ask God cause the fruit from his vineyard
to ripen in your life -- love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Those nine fruits are much sweeter than
success, power and fame.
Don Follis is an Urbana minister. Reprinted with permission
from the
Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette, copyright 2002.