Above: I squeeze myself into a vest I haven’t worn since my wedding day all to impress some high school kids I never met.

Introduction

A week ago (or so) I was supposed to give an inspirational baccalaureate speech that was faith centered and lasted about twenty minutes long. The first step to giving a baccalaureate speech is finding out what baccalaureate means. Apparently it has something to do with graduation. First step completed. Next step was to write the speech. I am currently reading an excellent book called “Delighting in the Trinity” by Michael Reeves. While it sounds pretty dusty and theological, it’s actually more theological and inspiring than dusty. It was required reading for Samaritan Aviation and once again I was forced to read a book that turned out to be quite impactful. So this was the subject on my mind as I pondered what to tell high school students ready to step out into the world. So you may be wishing (if you don’t know any better) that you were there to hear this speech but I can assure you that my delivery distracted from the message. Those in attendance probably missed half the words coming out of my mouth since I speaking so fast that I kept breaking the sound barrier, judging from the booming coming out of the mic in front of me. The light was in my eyes and so I couldn’t tell if everyone had heard enough and left the building. And then I walked to the wrong side of the stage to shake people’s hands. All in all it was one of my better speaking engagements. And, always desperate for more content on the blog, I’ve decided to make this speech available to the public even though it may cost me millions in lost speaking engagements. Without further ado, here’s my speech in written form.

The Speech

Do you want to know a secret? Some people work their whole lives and never learn this secret. They die without knowing it. Still fewer people learn this secret but they’re old and it’s too late to do much about it. Fewer people even still learn this secret when they’re young and even fewer people have the strength to apply this secret to their lives. It’s an exclusive group of people that practice this secret but it doesn’t have to be. Anybody can join this group, but first they need to know this secret AND they have to put it into practice.

You’re wondering what this secret is and I can guarantee you that you’re going to be disappointed when I tell you. How’s that for a sales pitch? If you’re like other people, this secret doesn’t appeal to your natural inclinations and so you dismiss it because, like a spoonful of medicine, it’s hard to swallow.

Life isn’t about you.

I know you’re probably rolling your eyes or maybe you’re even indignant. How dare you?! We’re here to celebrate us, the class of 2022. We need to be inspired because we are the next generation. Everything you adults built you are (eventually) going to hand down to us, whether we like it or not, and we’ll be running this world. Inspire us! 

I guess I could fluff up your self esteem and make you think you’re the center of the known universe and the whole world hinges on your opinion, but that wouldn’t be doing you any favors. Instead, I’m going to give you the same advice I would give my children in this situation.

If you make your life all about you, you are going to end up empty and lonely. Isn’t that strange? The very people who make it their life’s mission to make themselves happy end up making themselves very unhappy. If you make it all about you, all you’re going to end up with is you. And that’s going to be lonely, no matter how much of an introvert you are. Trust me because I’m an introvert. Because I can tell you that you’re heart is desperately wicked and it craves things it should not have.

If you make it all about you, all you’re going to end up with is you.

I spent the first two-thirds of my life chasing fun and never finding fulfillment. That’s because the things that bring you fulfillment are rarely fun. Fulfilling things definitely can be fun but inevitably the things that bring you fulfillment will also bring you pain. I love my children but sometimes I find myself cleaning vomit off their bed at 2 am. That’s not fun, in case you were wondering. But my children are the best investment that I choose to make every day.  The thing is that if life is all about our pleasure, we will avoid pain. Which means we naturally tend to avoid things that bring us lasting fulfillment. 

So, let’s review…

Life isn’t about you. 

But it’s more than just denying yourself – you’re simply choosing to function the way you were originally designed to function. And if you do that, you soul will blossom and overflow with meaning and purpose. Let me explain…

It all goes back to the beginning. Before the beginning, actually. I want to talk about the triune nature of God. Now, I realize that talking about the Trinity is making some of you instantly pull out your phones to distract yourselves from this boring speech. And you’ll simply be proving my point that very few people are able to take this medicine. Boring isn’t fun and so you want to avoid it. But this is a foundational point.

Now full disclosure, I myself don’t fully understand the complexities of the Trinity. It’s like a two dimensional stick figure who has been drawn with chalk on a sidewalk understanding the height of the skyscraper above it. God and I exist in different realms and my perspective limits my understanding. But we can know a few foundational things…

God is made up of three distinct persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These are not three different Gods but three persons in one. Yes, it’s hard to understand from our perspective and yet this is what the Bible teaches. The closest analogy that gives us an idea of how this can be is ourselves. We have a mind, we have a soul, and we have a body. Three distinct, almost separate entities that can disagree with each other. In fact, if you’re like me, these three parts of you spend a fair amount of time arguing among themselves. And yet I’m just one person. I believe this is because God made us in the image of himself. So when we understand God we understand ourselves. He has a triune nature and I think we are a miniature, corrupted, less capable version of that.

The closest we can get to understanding the powerful creative force of the Trinity, I think, is when we find ourselves doing something that entirely stimulates our mind, body, and spirit. When that happens we can’t stop ourselves from singing, dancing, or smiling. We feel fully alive. My daughter Adi is a good example of this. When she’s drawing or making crafts she often starts singing and laughing to herself. Her whole being is engaged in what she’s doing. Her body is drawing, her spirit is fueling her imagination, and her soul is singing.

That’s how our triune God feels all the time. There’s such an engagement between his three characters that out of it flows extravagant beauty, love, and power. God was love before we ever existed because God is a self sustaining being unlike any we have ever known. And yet the Father and Son are not self consumed with each other like love struck teenagers who get so caught up in each other’s eyes that they begin ignoring all their other friends. I’ve had friends like that and they are annoying. But they’re not like that because the Holy Spirit is there as well. The Spirit is the outworking of that Love. It’s the power of the relationship. It is through the Holy Spirit that the love of God is turned into a tangible thing. It’s the Holy Spirit which causes Christians to become the arms and feet of God. In Genesis we see the Spirit hovering above the waters turning the love of God into a sphere filled with extravagant beauty and life. The Spirit is the love muscle of God.

The Spirit is the love muscle of God.

Why then did God create humans? If God is love and he is satisfied in the love between the Father and Son, enabled by the Spirit, then why did He make us? He didn’t need us, did he?

God created you not because he was insecure and needed someone to worship him, not because he needed to wield power over subjects, not because he was lonely and needed company, not because He needed someone to love – He made you because the love between the Father and Son was so life giving, moving, and inspiring that he couldn’t help but create a masterpiece. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were all present at the creation of man. Genesis 1:26: Let us make mankind in our image.

God created you in a fit of overwhelming excitement and designed you to thrive in his embrace. You were designed to love God and God delights to love you. We are relational beings designed to freely give and freely receive love.

But that doesn’t always happen does it? Why?

Understanding the Trinity helps us realize the tragedy of sin.

When Eve decided to eat that apple, pear, or whatever forbidden fruit it was, it wasn’t just a simple act of disobedience. Her love turned from God to herself. She how good the fruit looked. She heard that it would make her wise. She wanted it. That’s what broke the cycle of love being received and being given. Eve made the object of her affection herself and it destroyed everything.

Don’t make yourself the object of your affection.

Therein lies the root cause of all sin committed on earth since the beginning of time: We take our capacity to love God and turn it away from him to ourselves. Greed, lust, covetousness, materialism are all results of people loving themselves.

So remember… It’s not about you. It’s about God. It’s about others. Jesus said this himself. 

34 And when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they themselves gathered together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested Him with a question: 36 “Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the Law?”

37 Jesus declared, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’e 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’f 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Matthew 22:34-40 NIV

Do not turn your affection inward but keep your affection flowing outward. We need to make God the sole object of our affection and when we do that we’ll find that we’ll get along with others too. 

Our love needs to be an overflow of his Love.

All good advice that can be given you must be built on this foundational principle. 

Looking for a job? Don’t work just for money.

Find one that engages your mind, soul, and spirit while giving you the opportunity to let love flow out of you. That’s not always possible but even when you’re just working to get a paycheck, never stop looking for opportunities to love other people with the same love the Father has shown you. People will notice. Opportunity will come.

Looking for a spouse? Find one that is concerned with the beauty of your body, soul, and spirit – not just your body. Some of the ugliest people I’ve meet looked pretty good on the outside. Good looks fade with time. Character only grows better with age. Marry someone with character. Marry someone who loves God more than they love you. Because it’s not about you.

Life isn’t about you but that doesn’t mean you’re unimportant. Sometimes when we turn from God and look inward it’s not with affection is it? We often believe the lie that we’re nothing. We have no talents. We hate who we are. This too is a form of an inward focus. This is taking your eyes off of God and turning them towards yourself, even if it’s not with affection. Trust me when I say this: God created you out of the passionate excitement that an artist feels when, with a barely constrained last stroke of his brush, he steps back and views his work. “It is good.” God said. 

“But I’m so messed up,” you may say. “How can God say I’m good?” When something is rare, even if it’s imperfect, it’s still worth something. In fact, sometimes the blemishes make something more valuable. There is no one else in this world like you. You’re immensely valuable, even if you make mistakes. God can take any mistake you ever make and turn it into a beautiful feature of your life. My art teacher, Mrs. Shenk, once said that the sign of a good artist is his ability to take a mistake and make it look intentional. God never makes mistakes, but we do. And if you’re like me you’ve marked your canvas all up and you’re sitting there crying because it’s the only canvas you had and now you ruined it. But God is behind you, looking at it, stroking his chin and imagining all the possibilities that the canvas still holds. He’s not mad at you. He’s not so unskilled that’s he scared of the challenge. In fact, he’s excited to get started. As the passionate fury of the architect of the universe guides your hands each loop and swoop of the brush will begin to reveal more of his beautiful plan. And what he comes up with will extremely surprise and utterly delight you. It will be much different than you expected but much better than you hoped.

It will be much different than you expected but much better than you hoped.

All you have to do is look to him. Don’t try to rip the brush out of the artist’s hand and try to paint your own picture. It’s not about you. As you face these school doors for the last time, remember to look outwards towards the creator of the universe. Allow him to guide your hands as you paint the picture of your life and never, ever underestimate the ability of God to make your mistakes beautiful.