Every other year I get to have the last word with the graduating
seniors at Dayton Christian High School, my alma mater and the school where I
have taught since 1977. Below are the words I gave to the Class of 2012 right
after they moved their tassels.
Congratulations! This is a most significant
achievement in your life. In fact, graduating from high school is a lifetime
achievement award.
Do you remember how old you were when you first
recognized the importance of the year 2012? You’ve been working toward this
night for more than a decade, and tonight you can finally breathe a sigh of
relief: you’ve done it. Most of you will go on to further studies, but you will
never again work for this many years to get a diploma. The next time
you finish something that takes you eighteen years to complete will probably be
when your own child graduates from high school. And you will feel a great sense
of accomplishment that night as well.
I'm going to speak frankly now. If you go on from
here to get a good education, get a good job, find a good person to marry,
settle into a nice neighborhood, find a good church, be a good mom or dad, a
good neighbor and a good employee… and if you’re satisfied with behaving
yourself well and living comfortably… we will have failed you miserably.
I haven’t given the past 35 years of my life to help
teenagers learn to behave themselves. Your parents haven’t sacrificed so much
for so long just so that you would turn out to be a well-adjusted and
productive member of society.
It was my mother who first coined the phrase
“Educating for Eternity.” And that’s not just a slogan. It’s what we’re all
about at Dayton Christian School. I love my work. I love the fact that I get to
spend all my professional energy creating in people’s lives a change that will
matter not just for decades but forever. I may not see some of you again in
this life, but I’m looking forward to seeing you in the next life and hearing
how God used you to build His Kingdom.
Between now and then some of you will live
comfortably, some of you will suffer terribly, some of you will be called to
professions and ministries that will be difficult and discouraging, as teaching
sometimes can be.
But none of that matters. It doesn’t matter whether
you make a lot of money or a little; it doesn't matter whether or not
you live in comfort and security.
All that matters is that you follow Rabbi Jesus,
that you discover your role in God’s Story, and that you play it well.
Everything else is details. Don’t get distracted, don’t get discouraged, by the
details.
You often heard me thank God for letting me have a
part in what He has been doing in your life. I meant those prayers. I really am
grateful for that opportunity to make some small contribution to His work in
you.
Thank you, parents, for your sacrifice and your
commitment, for entrusting your children to us, to my classroom.
And now, my blessing, from the Epistle to the
Hebrews: Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal
covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great
Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and
may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to
whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen
The 36th anuual pilgrimage by Dayton Christian Seniors to Awanita Valley, South Carolina was a roaring success with the class of 2012! Ever since Terry Chamberlain and Dan Grabill chaperoned the first class in May of 1976, students have been mudsliding, rafting, jeeping and Biltmoring for their senior trip...
