With commencement speeches beginning, I bring back these posts addressed to young people and will leave them up for a day or so:
The Shortest Commencement Speech Ever.....May, 2013
Once again, another year has passed and I wasn't invited by anyone to be their commencement speaker! So I dreamed a dream and in that dream a very fantastical thing happened. Joe Biden was to be the commencement speaker at the University of Pennsylvania but a couple of his hair plugs fell out at the last minute and he refused to go on stage. The Ivy League school administrators were frantic in trying to find a replacement. When they heard my name, Special Dog, they thought I must be a rap singer and thus eminently qualified to give a commencement speech.......then I woke up. So I sat down and penned the speech that I would have given had I in fact been invited as a commencement speaker...anywhere:
Well this is it! Four years....a hundred thousand dollars in debt.....and all you got is a piece of parchment and a t-shirt saying "I survived four years of American higher education." I just want to say one word to you. Just one word....plastics! Actually that's a quote, one of the top 100 film quotes by the way, from the 1969 movie The Graduate.
I'll start my advice with a little history.... the "last official words" of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. The magazine sized book published in 1964 that most everyone has seen... Four Days, The Historical Record Of The Death of President Kennedy, described it this way, "These were President Kennedy's last official words-the conclusion of the speech he was to have delivered in Dallas." That speech ended with these words, "...the righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength. For as was written long ago: 'Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain'." That Bible excerpt is the last half of the 1st verse of Psalm 127... from the King James Version, which begins with this "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it."
So I pass these words on to you as encouragement in this commencement speech for they are the only truly reliable words in this post: Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain!
So.... you will be going out trying to find a job...maybe you already have one lined up.....please remember...Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.
You finally have that degree....it will be worthless if you forget, Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
Whatever your degree is in.....it must now be built upon this, Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.
You might already have a position at the biggest law firm in New York City.....God's Word reminds you, Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain!
You're already an expert at investing and have great plans for your portfolio.....is this the title of that portfolio...Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it?
You're patient and willing to work your way up....good traits, but keep in mind...Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
You just might want to work for a year with the United Nations.....to build peace.... Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.
You might want to save the planet or protect the environment .....without God it will be in vain, for Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain!
This may be the shortest commencement speech ever given but one does not have to be a PHD, or a celebrity, a statesman, general or financial wizard to relay God's wisdom to graduates......
"Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain."
Stark Contrast
Surely somewhere in America on that bleak or snowy Saturday in early December 1941 a young man sat looking out of a restaurant window, or maybe a coffee shop, with a young lady at his side who was his new bride. They had the world at their fingertips as he was just awarded that treasured college diploma he worked so long and hard for, and she wore the wedding band she had dreamed about since they first met in grade school. They looked into each other's eyes with hardly a care in the world. Oh, the plans they had so much fun making.....a small cottage with a white picket fence that someday would keep little ones and maybe a puppy dog from straying as they play.
And then the morning came and as they walked into church the somber faces took their joy away for they had not heard the news from that group of islands where the sun shown year round and warm surf slapped the white beaches. America was in the war against evil that they had only given themselves minutes a day to reflect upon. The young bride knew immediately that their dreams would now be put on hold if they would ever come true. Surely the prayers of all present in that worship service were salted with tears.
Not every generation has its hopes interrupted as this generation did on December 7th, 1941 but our young generation today may indeed be another one. Colleges and universities are having their commencement right about now and the hopes and dreams of many wearing mortar boards and gowns are exactly the same as the young couple that I described.
I'm a news junky and the daily pain from the news of this world has made it such that I could never lose myself in plans or even hopes and dreams. Love is disappearing in the world....no.... worse than that, it has been hijacked by greed, tortured by pride and what is left is directed to ourselves and we in America are paying dearly for our dalliances.
The 1943 Academy Award for Best Picture went to the 1942 American film Mrs. Miniver in which Greer Garson also won for Best Actress. It portrays the upper middle class Miniver family who live outside of London in a very nice home on the River Thames. I list this film as one of my favorites in my Profile for this blog.
Life could not be sweeter for Mrs. Miniver and her family as she is smitten over an expensive new hat and her husband (Walter Pidgeon) outdoes her by purchasing a sporty new vehicle. Their eldest son has taken up the pipe at university and spouts his political views with heartfelt sincerity but naive certainty much like our youth today and very much like myself at that age. War looms on the horizon but is not taken seriously until England declares war on Germany. Life then changes for the family as their son goes off to war as their own home is damaged by bombs.
There is a church scene at the beginning of the film and another at the end and the stark contrast of the two is the essence of the film. Americans would already have experienced the realities of war when the film came out and the intended purpose of the film was to rally the American public by showing them the courage and stamina of the British homefront in a war they had already been in for three years. Winston Churchill commented on the book and the film in that they did more for the war effort than a flotilla of battleships.
I highly recommend the film for the essence, for we are in need of a reality check on what lies before us, and our congregations are in need of an extreme soberness in our worship services that would eliminate distractions and focus us solely on who we are there to worship.
River Of Passion....2013
It was drizzling and a bit chilly as my wife and son and I walked Cambridge University back in the spring of 2001. I wanted to see where many of the Puritans were educated, and I wanted to see some of the places where the Academy Award winning Chariots Of Fire were filmed. The building that housed the White Horse Inn was long gone but a small blue plaque hung in the nearest spot possible to that location.
To our youth.....may they make more of it than we did.
It was in the 1960s when Madison Avenue realized that the youth of America were a potentially potent economic force with their newly established buying power. Along with all the attention given to us, for I was a Baby Boomer also, came a microphone. Some used it to shout pro-Ho Chi Minh slogans from atop university statues, some used it to attack Richard Nixon, some used it to announce to the world the true meaning of love, peace and happiness, and a very few used it to ask "Brother, are you saved?". The youth never relinquished that microphone but didn't really use it again until the horror of the murderous and imperialist Bush Administration (to use their words and their contorted reasoning) savaged the Middle-East with war.
When Barack Hussein Obama came along with no employment history to speak of, no legitimate letters of recommendation, no experience outside of community organizing and not even a birth certificate to prove eligibility for the job he was applying for, the youth came out in force to change America and the world.. Obama received 66 percent of the 18-29 vote in 2008. More recently, Rand Paul became a favorite of young people in the republican primaries.
It was in a 16th century English pub, the White Horse Inn, that a youth movement did indeed help to change the world. Located on the grounds of Cambridge University... students, Dons and travellers discussed the works of Martin Luther and out of this discussion came a passion for the hearing of the Word of God which resulted in the English Reformation.
America needs a vigorous and positive contribution from its youth at this very moment in our history. It must not be birthed by the spirit of the age but by God's Holy Spirit. Just getting a job cannot be the criteria to determine success. The college student of today is in a more precarious situation than any generation before them. Not the Civil War, nor World War II, nor the Cuban Missile Crisis compares to it. They are losing their republican form of government, the Constitution that kept the rule of law intact, and most importantly the blessings of having God's very hand upon our nation.
The original discovery that youth were an economic force has evolved into a monster feeding frenzy with the youth feeding on every material and social networking product thrown at them while others feed on the youth themselves and enemies of America feed on the vacant minds seeking anything to occupy it.
I realize that you, any young people who may be visiting this site, do not want to hear this. Possibly you are not represented by this description. You have made plans, worked hard and now it is your turn to enter the work force and carve out a niche with a prosperous future. Are you going to attempt this without God, or at least expect the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in a nation that overtly rejects God? Realize this.... past generations had the benefit of living within of a God-fearing populace. Even the agnostic could graze in the fields of plenty. This is not the case today! Others have long since sprayed the insecticide of secular humanism over the amber waves of grain, killing the grain it was supposed to protect. You can join this survival of the fittest if you want, where prosperity is soulless and void of true happiness; or you can join those who are seeking mercy from God and a renewed reverence to the one who blessed your grandparents and their parents as far back as to arrival on this continent.
Do you sometimes feel a void of passion in your life...a meaninglessness that cannot be satisfied by the picture that you paint on your Facebook page? Well, a river of passion flows right by you! Cup your hands and drink from it. Let mercy and peace pass over your palate. A President's election will give but one night of elation but the coronation of the King of Kings provided every morning and every evening with a ceaseless ardor that will make you forever thankful. If you happen to really see the trouble that we are in here in America... that very sight is from God, and He will also give the balm, supply the strength and provide the wisdom to see the joy of redemption even in the darkest hours of this world, and to plan ahead with the full trust that if it be His will it will happen and if it not be His will you would not want it to happen. Here is the only true hope and change...... "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." 2 Corinthians 5:17
The Shortest Commencement Speech Ever.....May, 2013
Once again, another year has passed and I wasn't invited by anyone to be their commencement speaker! So I dreamed a dream and in that dream a very fantastical thing happened. Joe Biden was to be the commencement speaker at the University of Pennsylvania but a couple of his hair plugs fell out at the last minute and he refused to go on stage. The Ivy League school administrators were frantic in trying to find a replacement. When they heard my name, Special Dog, they thought I must be a rap singer and thus eminently qualified to give a commencement speech.......then I woke up. So I sat down and penned the speech that I would have given had I in fact been invited as a commencement speaker...anywhere:
Well this is it! Four years....a hundred thousand dollars in debt.....and all you got is a piece of parchment and a t-shirt saying "I survived four years of American higher education." I just want to say one word to you. Just one word....plastics! Actually that's a quote, one of the top 100 film quotes by the way, from the 1969 movie The Graduate.
I'll start my advice with a little history.... the "last official words" of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. The magazine sized book published in 1964 that most everyone has seen... Four Days, The Historical Record Of The Death of President Kennedy, described it this way, "These were President Kennedy's last official words-the conclusion of the speech he was to have delivered in Dallas." That speech ended with these words, "...the righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength. For as was written long ago: 'Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain'." That Bible excerpt is the last half of the 1st verse of Psalm 127... from the King James Version, which begins with this "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it."
So I pass these words on to you as encouragement in this commencement speech for they are the only truly reliable words in this post: Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain!
So.... you will be going out trying to find a job...maybe you already have one lined up.....please remember...Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.
You finally have that degree....it will be worthless if you forget, Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
Whatever your degree is in.....it must now be built upon this, Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.
You might already have a position at the biggest law firm in New York City.....God's Word reminds you, Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain!
You're already an expert at investing and have great plans for your portfolio.....is this the title of that portfolio...Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it?
You're patient and willing to work your way up....good traits, but keep in mind...Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
You just might want to work for a year with the United Nations.....to build peace.... Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.
You might want to save the planet or protect the environment .....without God it will be in vain, for Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain!
This may be the shortest commencement speech ever given but one does not have to be a PHD, or a celebrity, a statesman, general or financial wizard to relay God's wisdom to graduates......
"Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain."
Stark Contrast
Surely somewhere in America on that bleak or snowy Saturday in early December 1941 a young man sat looking out of a restaurant window, or maybe a coffee shop, with a young lady at his side who was his new bride. They had the world at their fingertips as he was just awarded that treasured college diploma he worked so long and hard for, and she wore the wedding band she had dreamed about since they first met in grade school. They looked into each other's eyes with hardly a care in the world. Oh, the plans they had so much fun making.....a small cottage with a white picket fence that someday would keep little ones and maybe a puppy dog from straying as they play.
And then the morning came and as they walked into church the somber faces took their joy away for they had not heard the news from that group of islands where the sun shown year round and warm surf slapped the white beaches. America was in the war against evil that they had only given themselves minutes a day to reflect upon. The young bride knew immediately that their dreams would now be put on hold if they would ever come true. Surely the prayers of all present in that worship service were salted with tears.
Not every generation has its hopes interrupted as this generation did on December 7th, 1941 but our young generation today may indeed be another one. Colleges and universities are having their commencement right about now and the hopes and dreams of many wearing mortar boards and gowns are exactly the same as the young couple that I described.
I'm a news junky and the daily pain from the news of this world has made it such that I could never lose myself in plans or even hopes and dreams. Love is disappearing in the world....no.... worse than that, it has been hijacked by greed, tortured by pride and what is left is directed to ourselves and we in America are paying dearly for our dalliances.
The 1943 Academy Award for Best Picture went to the 1942 American film Mrs. Miniver in which Greer Garson also won for Best Actress. It portrays the upper middle class Miniver family who live outside of London in a very nice home on the River Thames. I list this film as one of my favorites in my Profile for this blog.
Life could not be sweeter for Mrs. Miniver and her family as she is smitten over an expensive new hat and her husband (Walter Pidgeon) outdoes her by purchasing a sporty new vehicle. Their eldest son has taken up the pipe at university and spouts his political views with heartfelt sincerity but naive certainty much like our youth today and very much like myself at that age. War looms on the horizon but is not taken seriously until England declares war on Germany. Life then changes for the family as their son goes off to war as their own home is damaged by bombs.
There is a church scene at the beginning of the film and another at the end and the stark contrast of the two is the essence of the film. Americans would already have experienced the realities of war when the film came out and the intended purpose of the film was to rally the American public by showing them the courage and stamina of the British homefront in a war they had already been in for three years. Winston Churchill commented on the book and the film in that they did more for the war effort than a flotilla of battleships.
I highly recommend the film for the essence, for we are in need of a reality check on what lies before us, and our congregations are in need of an extreme soberness in our worship services that would eliminate distractions and focus us solely on who we are there to worship.
River Of Passion....2013
It was drizzling and a bit chilly as my wife and son and I walked Cambridge University back in the spring of 2001. I wanted to see where many of the Puritans were educated, and I wanted to see some of the places where the Academy Award winning Chariots Of Fire were filmed. The building that housed the White Horse Inn was long gone but a small blue plaque hung in the nearest spot possible to that location.
To our youth.....may they make more of it than we did.
It was in the 1960s when Madison Avenue realized that the youth of America were a potentially potent economic force with their newly established buying power. Along with all the attention given to us, for I was a Baby Boomer also, came a microphone. Some used it to shout pro-Ho Chi Minh slogans from atop university statues, some used it to attack Richard Nixon, some used it to announce to the world the true meaning of love, peace and happiness, and a very few used it to ask "Brother, are you saved?". The youth never relinquished that microphone but didn't really use it again until the horror of the murderous and imperialist Bush Administration (to use their words and their contorted reasoning) savaged the Middle-East with war.
When Barack Hussein Obama came along with no employment history to speak of, no legitimate letters of recommendation, no experience outside of community organizing and not even a birth certificate to prove eligibility for the job he was applying for, the youth came out in force to change America and the world.. Obama received 66 percent of the 18-29 vote in 2008. More recently, Rand Paul became a favorite of young people in the republican primaries.
It was in a 16th century English pub, the White Horse Inn, that a youth movement did indeed help to change the world. Located on the grounds of Cambridge University... students, Dons and travellers discussed the works of Martin Luther and out of this discussion came a passion for the hearing of the Word of God which resulted in the English Reformation.
America needs a vigorous and positive contribution from its youth at this very moment in our history. It must not be birthed by the spirit of the age but by God's Holy Spirit. Just getting a job cannot be the criteria to determine success. The college student of today is in a more precarious situation than any generation before them. Not the Civil War, nor World War II, nor the Cuban Missile Crisis compares to it. They are losing their republican form of government, the Constitution that kept the rule of law intact, and most importantly the blessings of having God's very hand upon our nation.
The original discovery that youth were an economic force has evolved into a monster feeding frenzy with the youth feeding on every material and social networking product thrown at them while others feed on the youth themselves and enemies of America feed on the vacant minds seeking anything to occupy it.
I realize that you, any young people who may be visiting this site, do not want to hear this. Possibly you are not represented by this description. You have made plans, worked hard and now it is your turn to enter the work force and carve out a niche with a prosperous future. Are you going to attempt this without God, or at least expect the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in a nation that overtly rejects God? Realize this.... past generations had the benefit of living within of a God-fearing populace. Even the agnostic could graze in the fields of plenty. This is not the case today! Others have long since sprayed the insecticide of secular humanism over the amber waves of grain, killing the grain it was supposed to protect. You can join this survival of the fittest if you want, where prosperity is soulless and void of true happiness; or you can join those who are seeking mercy from God and a renewed reverence to the one who blessed your grandparents and their parents as far back as to arrival on this continent.
Do you sometimes feel a void of passion in your life...a meaninglessness that cannot be satisfied by the picture that you paint on your Facebook page? Well, a river of passion flows right by you! Cup your hands and drink from it. Let mercy and peace pass over your palate. A President's election will give but one night of elation but the coronation of the King of Kings provided every morning and every evening with a ceaseless ardor that will make you forever thankful. If you happen to really see the trouble that we are in here in America... that very sight is from God, and He will also give the balm, supply the strength and provide the wisdom to see the joy of redemption even in the darkest hours of this world, and to plan ahead with the full trust that if it be His will it will happen and if it not be His will you would not want it to happen. Here is the only true hope and change...... "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." 2 Corinthians 5:17
