From a parent:

My daughter’s graduation was like every such ceremony across the country with all the requisite emotions: pride, nostalgia, tears, smiles, gratitude, and relief. There were some differences, though, too. I wonder how many other graduates heard a warning against academic ambition, or a challenge to stay close to Jesus? Or to their parents? The graduates heard pastor Johann Christoph Arnold encourage them to channel their youthful energy into service to God, and to be aware of the dangers of creeping governmental power over the individual conscience.

Read Arnold’s words, and see if they don’t apply to yourself or to your favorite graduate this year!
—Dana Wiser

Text of the address:

It is awesome to see you!  Good evening everybody!  It’s great to be here and thanks to all of you who have come.

I'm looking at the row of graduates, and I have to say each one of you students is special. My wife and I have gotten to love you through all the joys and struggles of your years here. We will never be the same! You changed our lives, and for this we thank God.

Here are a few parting thoughts to give you something to chew on. In your time here at the Maple Ridge High School, you have proven that you can accomplish much more than anyone, including yourselves, would have imagined. You have worked hard. So you do not need to prove to the world that you can do something. You are all young and full of enthusiasm.  That is good! But when you accomplish something, be sure to give all credit to God. 

Do not let the world convince you that you need long university trainings to make a difference. Some of you will go on to college, and others will take practical trainings that will be even more useful.  But the most important thing is your relationship to Jesus. He warned us saying: “What good is it to conquer the whole world if you do harm to your own soul?”

And you know, the funny thing is, life is a lot simpler than that. People! It is always people that matter, never, never things and this includes education; the best thing in education is people. The best education is contact with other people – trying to put a smile on their faces. Young people, remember, if that is all that you do for the rest of your lives – putting smiles on other people’s faces - you will have done something for the world. So, if you want to make your life count, all you have to remember is the following, and this is one of my favorite stories by Tolstoy. “The Three Questions.” Remember what the hermit said to the king after everything was done, after the enemy came, was wounded and then healed, fed and rested. The hermit said:

“Remember then, there is only one time (there is only ONE time) that is important and that is the time now. It is important because it is the only time when we have any power. The most necessary man is he with whom you are, for no man knows whether he will ever have dealings with anyone else. And the most important affair is to do that man good, because for that purpose alone, (young people, remember!) for that purpose alone was man sent into this life.”

And for that purpose alone you young people were sent into this life, to do people whom you meet, good. That is what life is all about.

You will need God’s help to get through life. Hard things happen to everyone, and you will often be confused and disheartened.  Communicate daily with Him through prayer.  We all were created in the image of God, so we have to live in a manner that is worthy of this image. 

Believing in God and in Jesus is becoming more and more unpopular. In fact at times it can even seem dangerous. Never be ashamed of Jesus, for as Paul writes in Romans, “I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek."

We all know that “our government was created for the people, and by the people.”  Over the 200 years that our country has existed, this original concept of a free democracy has turned into a giant business corporation that overspends the hard-earned money of its citizens.  Slowly but surely the governmental tentacles are reaching into almost every aspect of people’s lives. Even now the noose is tightening slowly but surely on our religious freedoms. Thankfully, there are still concerned people today who are not happy with this wrong direction our country is taking.  You young people, you have to learn to speak up. In the Nazi era in Germany one person said: “First they came for the Jews and I was not a Jew, then they came for the socialists and I was not a socialist, and then they came for the communists and I was not a communist, but then they came for me and nobody was left to speak up for me.” History repeats itself – this can also happen today.

As Americans, we love our country, we want to serve our country, but we also want to worship God, and raise our children the way we were taught by our parents and grandparents, and most of all by the Good Book.  Without God to lead us we will die as a nation, and if you study the original manuscript of the founding of our nation it was God who mattered, it was “in God we trust”.  All of that is falling by the wayside. We will then deprive our children of their most precious inheritance—our faith in God, and our love for our country and its people.

There are also many confusing messages in the world that look very attractive and glamorous, especially for young people. The pressure to excel and to succeed is endangering childhood and youth like never before.  Naturally, parents always want their children to “do well,” both academically and socially.  Nobody wants their child to fail or to be the slowest in their class. We forget to ask the question: “What is achievement, anyway?” And “what is success?”  You’ll need to ask yourselves these questions for the rest of your lives.  Only then will you be able to come back to the simple message of Tolstoy that we all have been placed on this planet for one purpose alone and that is to do good to our neighbor. The answer to all mankind’s problems is right here.

The greatest assets you have are your parents.  Do not distance yourselves from them.  Your relationship to God is closely connected to your relationship with your father and mother.  If you lose one, then you will lose the other.  Then you will have lost the most precious thing that any human being can possess.

To make a difference in somebody else’s life will be the greatest challenge you will ever face.  Just think of the peace and joy that you will have in your hearts when you approach the end of your life with the knowledge that you have made a difference.  Then your hour on the world stage (as Macbeth so eloquently expresses it) will have been worthwhile. And you beloved young people, I am confident that you will live up to this challenge and that you will not let us down.    We’ll be praying for you.  May God be with you. Thank you very much.

 

Johann Christoph Arnold is a pastor, author of ten books, and co-founder of Breaking the Cycle.

The story "The Three Questions" referred to in the talk is in our free ebook "Walk in the Light" a collection of stories by Leo Tolstoy.

 

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Responses

I liked your graduation speech. it was a reasonable length and content was genuine. i have one thought regarding 'love of country; has nationalism proven to support love of neighbor. and according to the good book the parable of who really is my neighbor (good samaritan) evokes us to widen out our love to include all people regardless of government affiliations. how can we love a God whom we have never seen and hate our brother who we see on tv, in the newspaper etc. war is not love.

eunice