Speech for 2022 high school graduating class of Trinity Lutheran Church, Springfield, MO.
Congratulations graduating class of 2022. You certainly are finishing your primary education and entering the world of adulthood at a very, very interesting time.
There is an old Chinese blessing, May you live in uninteresting times.
The point of this blessing is: regular, ole, everyday life is busy and exciting and hard enough to get right. Blessed are they who need not contend with unusual, noteworthy, once-in-a-lifetime incidences coinciding.
Hannah asked me to say something to you that would be encouraging and helpful. Specifically, she wanted me to offer some advice on being a godly adult as you continue your Christian life apart from your parents’ constant oversight.
Being a child underneath your parents’ discipline is hard. Being a young adult under your parents’ discipline, once you’ve discovered that you have thoughts and ideas of your own, is even more challenging.
I can assure you, being an adult with only yourself to blame when things go awry is most challenging of all.
I often tell my teenagers, It is my job to discipline you until you are capable of disciplining yourself.
Being a godly, responsible adult is all about self-discipline, and you only get better at being self-disciplined and at being a godly, productive, responsible adult through practice.
You’ve heard the saying, Practice makes perfect.
Well, that’s a lie. Nobody’s perfect except Jesus. Practice merely makes you better at whatever you are practicing.
No one in this room has perfected being an adult, or a parent, or a member of their chosen vocation.
We are all practicing.
Much like the professional vocations are referred to as a practice (and, for that matter, a discipline): Law, medicine, chiropractic, consulting, accounting, architecture; life is a practice.
Practice, in this sense, is a noun. It is defined as a continual exercise of a vocation.
I’m going to share with you a true truth: EVERYTHING you do is practice and whatever discipline (good or bad) you choose to practice; you will get better at that discipline.
If you practice swinging a club and sinking puts, you will get better at golf.
If you practice writing at least 500 words a day, you will become a better writer.
If you practice sketching, you will become a better artist.
If you practice listening, you will become a better listener.
If you practice thinking, you will get better at thinking.
If you practice paying attention to what’s happening around you, you will get better at being observant.
If you practice hating authority and discipline, you will become a better rebel.
If you practice playing video games all day or binge-watching Netflix, you will become a great couch potato.
If you practice having intimate relationships with multiple partners and practice breaking up with them the moment things get a little complicated, you will get better at despising commitment.
You may swear that you want to do the right thing. You may say you want to get up early and make a daily habit of prayer and Bible reading, and physical exercise, but until you take action and start practicing, why should anyone believe you?
Words matter. But actions do speak louder than words.
Everything you do is practice.
I want you, right now, to say, out loud: Everything I do is practice.
So, what are you practicing?
Well, speaking of words, let’s talk about confession.
Confession is the act of admitting, acknowledging, or giving evidence of something.
Every Divine Service, we confess that we are, by nature, sinful and unclean….
We confess that we believe God the Father Almighty created all things. We confess that Jesus, His son, is sinless and died for us, and we need his life, death, and resurrection to give us forgiveness and hope.
We confess that we believe in The Holy Spirit and the Holy Christian Church.
Why do we confess these things?
Because it’s the truth.
You always want your confession to be the truth.
Each one of you are baptized. You are a child of God. You belong to Him. He is your Father. This is the truth.
Each of you has been confirmed, which means you affirm the truth of what you were taught.
How does a godly adult confess the truth in their daily life?
By loving their Heavenly Father and keeping his commandments such as:
- Not taking the Father’s name for granted.
- Remembering the Sabbath and keeping it holy.
- Honoring earthly authority; father and mother.
- Not committing murder.
- Not committing adultery.
- Not stealing.
- Not giving false testimony against your neighbor.
- Not coveting.
You confess the truth by daily practicing God’s law.
Here’s another true truth: everything you practice is a confession.
Remember the baker in Colorado whose business was shut down because he didn’t want to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple? Have you heard what his reasons were for that decision? He stated that a wedding cake isn’t merely a desert. It is a confession about what marriage is. If he were to make a wedding cake for a lesbian wedding, he would be confessing something that he didn’t believe to be the truth: namely, that marriage was something other than the joining together of one man and one woman forever.
In our Lutheran tradition, we have a practice called closed or close communion, where we fence the table from anyone who does not share our confession of the Sacrament of the Altar. We aren’t claiming that someone is not a Christian with this practice. We are protecting our confession that Christ’s body and blood are truly present in the bread and the wine.
A godly adult must always confess the truth.
Ask yourself, do you confess the truth?
Here’s another true truth: Confessing the truth is hard.
The world does not confess the truth. The world wants you to confess anything other than the truth.
The truth is, children are a blessing. They don’t always FEEL like a blessing, but the truth is, they are. The world wants you to confess that children are a hindrance.
Have you seen the latest Verizon commercial that advertises, No family needed?
That’s a lie. The truth is, you wouldn’t exist without your family.
The truth is, there is nothing new under the sun.
The world wants you to confess that it’s not the same as it was. At least Harry Stiles does.
Pay attention to the confession being made by the songs that get stuck in your head. Repetition matters.
The truth is, God is in control of all things, and all things work together for good to them that love the Lord and are called according to His purpose.
The world wants you to confess that you are a victim of circumstances. Overbearing parents oppress you and want to hold you back. The only way to make things better is to radically and violently hate and destroy and declare whatever you desire to be the truth.
As you go into this world, disciplining yourself, whether you are going away to college, taking a gap year to travel, or going straight into a job, I want you to have stuck in your head like a mantra:
- Everything I do is practice. And
- Everything I practice is a confession.
My prayer for you is that whatever you decide to do, you continue to practice being a Christian, and you always confess the truth.
Everything you do is practice. Everything you practice is a confession. Always confess the truth.
Life is getting ready to get busy. It’s going to feel overwhelming at times. You’ll feel like you aren’t accomplishing things you want to achieve. You’re going to feel despair that your plans are not working out the way you had hoped. You’re going to make choices you wish you could take back. You’re going to waste time you wish you could have back.
Just keep practicing being a Christian, and always confess the truth.
The practice of being a godly, Christian adult includes many duties. It includes the listing of household responsibilities found in Colossians 3:8-4:1 and Ephesians 5:22-6:9.
Putting away the old self:
- anger
- wrath
- malice
- slander
- obscene talk
- lying
Practicing the new self:
- compassion
- kindness
- humility
- meekness
- patience
At a minimum, when you find you’ve gone a week forgetting any personal prayer; when a whole month goes by, and you haven’t bothered to crack open God’s Word in your personal time when you can’t seem to go a day without causing chaos and damage and disorder everywhere you go and with everything you say, make it a practice to attend Divine Service every week because that is where God has promised to be, and God never breaks His promises.
God will be there, delivering His word and delivering forgiveness.
Practice receiving God’s Word into your ears and into your mouth. Practice being a Christian by confessing you’re a sinner in need of Jesus and his forgiveness. Practice receiving God’s forgiveness.
Being godly means practicing being a Christian and confessing the truth.
Okay, repeat after me:
Everything I do is practice.
Everything I practice is a confession.
