We often talk of commencement as the ‘start of your real life’. “Real life” is, in some sense, an illusion. Jesus alone is ‘real life’. This short term experience is a corrupt illusion that we mistakenly call ‘life’. It is not going to last forever and is a temporary situation in which we live in decaying mortal bodies in a corrupt world under the prince of darkness. Hence, this will not be a cake walk and this is not about you. This is about the 3.6 billion people on the planet who have no idea who Jesus is. Time is precious and ‘your time’ does not belong to you. Also, ‘life’ is not on your side. You might be young, but that doesn’t make it easy. Accept that reality and purpose to live for that for which you were created and you actually will find there is joy in the journey and much of it.
Yes, things spiritually are at a low ebb. We need a national revival. Young people please be aware you cannot leave the church because you are the church. You leave it, skip it, distance yourself from it, then you destroy that for which Christ Jesus died. I challenge you to show the meaning of radical discipleship. You pick up your cross. You show you love Jesus enough to work to humble yourself and work for nothing. He paid for you. I plead with you to be an example to those who are older and burned out. Set the example again.
I’ve been at life for nearly six decades now and the biggest mistakes people make in their twenties are these: they either suppress God’s voice to do something they really want to do, or they suffer from ‘choice paralysis’ and wrongly suppose they have to make the perfect one right choice for their entire life in their next step. As the saying goes, “You can’t steer a moored ship”. In six decades of life I have done most everything I have ever thought the Lord might have me do. I just didn’t do them all at once. But if you have a half dozen choices before you and all are scriptural, choose one and trust the Lord to check you if it wrong. The chance of birds flying overhead in a formation that says, “Go to Egypt” are not terribly high, but if you can go to Egypt and the Lord has placed it before you, go ahead.
Yes, there will be tears in the days to come. They will not always be tears of weeping for the lost. There will be tears of frustration, of not understanding what the Father is doing. There will be the tears of farewell and tears of loss. As Michael Card said in one of his songs, ‘there were tears before there was rain’. The Lord has given you and open door. Walk through it and know that you will not always keep your eyes above the waves, but when you do not, He will grab hold of you. Now get moving. Redeem the time, for the days are evil.
Things You Did Not Learn in Bible College 