Garden School Graduation Speech 2010

Yet again, my Seniors asked me to make a speech at their graduation. So, with much trembling and unsettling emotions, I offered up these words. It was an incredibly difficult speech to give, being so weighted with so many hopes and deep passion... I am thankful for my graduates who were so gracious while I struggled to read it.

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I would like to thank you, graduates, for the opportunity to come and share my thoughts with you one more time. I have been privileged to serve as one of your teachers this year. You have endured many lectures, rants, and off-the-subject stories in my class. So, for you to ask me to come and give one last lecture, means that something I said somewhere must have rung true. That, or we didn’t have money in the budget for a really cool speaker! I am hoping that it was the first option…

Today is special; probably more so than you even realize. This day marks a significant transition in your lives… a point that will grow in significance as time passes and you have the opportunity to reflect on it. I don’t want to say this to talk over your heads, or to treat you as though you are children, but to exhort you to take today seriously. In fact, I beseech you to take everyday seriously…

I know that your hormone-clouded minds are reeling, and you have probably had enough of “serious” in the past couple of months. You have been inundated with well-intentioned people who want to know your plans. “So what are you going to do after you graduate?” “Where are you going to school in the Fall?” “Do you have a job lined up?” “What kind of career do you want to pursue?”

Frankly, right now, I don’t care about that stuff. I couldn’t care less if you drive a dump truck or practice medicine. It doesn’t matter much to me if you go to college or not. I don’t mean to startle any of your families here today, but in the Final Judgment, those things are details. Instead, I ache to see each of you work for the Kingdom, and make your life an offering to your Savior.

It would be unfair of me to leave you with that sentiment by itself. It is a hard thing, to live such a life. It is absurd to attempt this life without having some guideposts… so, these are what I would like to give you. I can’t speak to every circumstance you may ever encounter, but I want to offer up some things that I hope will help you weigh your decisions. Of course, you will recognize many of these lessons from our study of the Scriptures, but the best lessons bear repetition. At least I hope so!

The first and greatest lesson we read is that we are each Created by a God who loves us. Not only that, but each and every human being bears His Image. I don’t know if the impact of these two truths can ever be overstated. It is simple enough for children to learn in Sunday School, but profound enough to make the wise marvel. Do YOU believe that you are Created by God, in His image?

We see a hopeless, childless old man promised a family. He believes Yahweh, and becomes the father of a mighty nation. Faith will not always make sense, but the reward is immeasurable… as the stars in the Heavens… Will YOU have such a faith?

We come to realize that our choices bear dire consequences. As we stand on the plains of Moab, we are confronted with this great distinction… will we choose Life, or will we choose Death? As we anticipate entering into our own Promised Land one day, we all have to realize that these are the ultimate ends of our actions. Will YOU choose life?

We encounter the miraculous. Seas are parted. Walls are felled. The infirm are restored. God acting again and again in ways that shatter our modern assumptions about the world. Do YOU believe that He still works miracles? Do you believe that He can?

Life is characterized by endless choices that we all encounter every day. We see both wisdom and folly calling us to follow them. Thankfully, in the Scriptures we also find True Wisdom to help us make such decisions. As you go out and seek counselors to help you through tough times, be sure to look for God-Fearing men and women to guide you. Will YOU follow True Wisdom? Will YOU live wisely?

By contrast, we find that every activity under the sun will prove fruitless if we act with the wrong motivations. Will YOU chase after the wind and make a name for yourself? Will You seek after a life of hollow pleasures and worthless treasures?

We see the Prophets of old speaking of a mysterious time yet ahead. In That Day, those who have built great temples to house their egos will find their idols destroyed. All who are hard pressed will find comfort. All who know only strife and conflict will find peace. Sin-stained hearts will be cleansed. Death will lose its’ sting. Do YOU look forward to That Day?

I am sure that it is no surprise that I am not offering easy answers here. That would be somehow untrue. I am leaving you with questions that you have to answer, and not just with words, but with your lives.

I have been deeply blessed to have shared this year with you, and I hope so much for each of you. Most of all, though, I hope that when That Day comes… the Day of which those prophets spoke… I will see each of you being richly rewarded for a life lived in His Name. And it is in His Name, the Name above all names, that I pray these things for you.

Thank you again for being such blessings to me, and may the Lord bless each of you as you go.

Garden School Graduation 2009

This is the text of the speech I gave to the Garden School's 2009 graduating class, May 16, 2009.  It was a tough, emotional speech to give, but I hope that it rang true to those who heard it.  Being that I have dreamed of giving such a speech for some years now, it was a deep privilege.  My thanks to my students for asking me to offer these words on such a momentous day.  More than words...

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(To the crowd as a whole.)

Hello.  My name is Patrick Koschak, otherwise known as the Benevolent Dictator to these Seniors.  I have had the privilege of being their teacher this year in home room class, and they have asked me to be here today in order to share some parting words of wisdom with them.  On behalf of our Seniors, I would like to welcome all of you to the 2009 Garden School Graduation ceremony.  Family and friends, acquaintances and gate-crashers, talking animals and other carbon based lifeforms; you are all welcome here today.  

         (To the Seniors)

You have made it.  Good job.  I am so very, very proud of each of you.   

Here I stand.  I am here to offer something to you.  This day is about the six of you, but this speech will probably sound more like it’s about me.  For those who know me, this may not come as a surprise!  You see, without my experience, I would have nothing at all to say, so in some ways these things must always be autobiographical…  Forgive me if I seem to drift off course.

I remember many moons ago when I sat at my own graduation.  It was in the year of the red grass, before the white man came, when the Buffalo still roamed the prairie, but I remember it still.  I remember feeling torn, or maybe a little confused over what was going on. 

         Maybe now, you find yourself feeling that way.  On the one hand, this is just another day.  A minute is still 60 seconds... still 24 hours in the day.  Tomorrow will be just another day.  You will not undergo some kind of mysterious transformation in the night  that will cause hair to grow out of new orifices…  well, that might happen, but aside from that, tomorrow is just another day to you…

         However, there is still this thought tugging at your mind that this is not just another day.  There are many people that you all have talked with these past months who seem to think that this is a big deal, and that gives you reason to doubt what you want to believe about this event.  Despite the youthful bravado you might display, you are a little unsure.

I might suggest that the rest of us here know that this day means something.  We can look back over these years and mark the passage of our own lives.  Time, and its’ twin brother Experience, have given us an insight that is often dismissed by the young.  Whether it be cultural construct, or the most real of passages, your graduation marks a new direction, a distinct dispensation.

         Doubtless you have heard about what awaits you.  Its’ various names have been invoked by parents and teachers in varying tones of warning and concern, almost like a boogey man.  You have wondered what, exactly, it is or what the big deal is about.  You have heard it described in various ways.  You are surrounded by it, but you might feel like you don’t understand it.  It crouches in wait for you tomorrow…      

         In case you haven’t guessed it, I am talking about the Real World.  Oh, don’t roll your eyes.  This phrase is not, in my mind, meant to imply that your experience thus far is less real or unreal somehow.  This does not dismiss your lives up to this point as childishly unimportant.  Saying youth is somehow unimportant is a lie straight from Hell. 

Instead, I want to suggest that it is one of those things not to be feared or scoffed at, but taken seriously.  You see, graduates, it is a perspective gained after the fact... similar to the Heavenly perspective in Lewis’ Great Divorce…  you probably don’t really get it yet, but one day, I pray you will.  Right now, in your hormone-clouded, expectant minds, you probably don’t want another unknowable hanging over you… but it is what it is. 

The Real World is a place filled with the most dire of consequences and the deepest of joys.  It can be a grey town, or a bright country.  It is made up of damaged hearts, unfulfilled dreams, dashed hopes, inexpressible beauty, new life, and incredible triumphs.  The valleys are desperately, terribly low, but the mountains..  oh the mountains …  are so,so majestic…  The Real World is a different sort of reality.  It is almost like the Matrix that way.  (Pardon the lame pop cultural reference… but I am trying here!)

Now, like Morpheus, I am here to offer you a choice.  In this instance, you have no choice about whether to be a part of this particular Matrix.  The choice that I am suggesting is this: how will you live in the Matrix?  Who will you serve?  Which pill will you choose? 

On the one hand, you can go through life cautiously constructing an altar to your own ego.  You can live in a way that disregards contrary opinions and the people that express them.  You can probably find a comfortable job, maybe even a little pile of money.  You might find another person to share all of this with.  You could end up with a nice house on the edge of the grey town, alone in your own mind, after arriving safely at death. 

         On the other hand, you can choose to really live.  No, it isn’t a simple matter of breathe in – breathe out; that’s the other choice.  This is adventure.  This is hardship.  This is eternal glory and reward!!  This is ultimate reality.  But this one will cost you something.  It will require you to give up your life…  to become a literal, living sacrifice.

         WHAT!!! 

Mr. K, we didn’t ask you to come here to talk like that!!!  We wanted you to be goofy… to say some outlandish stuff to make this a fun event!  Good grief!  What are you talking about this kind of stuff for…?

         My friends, (you are my friends) I can speak no other way and give the gravity of this event its’ due.  This is a send off, a farewell, as one part of your life ends and another begins.  I would be remiss if I did not give this word of encouragement and warning.  It must be so.

         This living sacrifice thing is real stuff.  You must give up your life to gain it.  Remember Jim Elliot who said: “He is no fool who gives up what he can not keep to gain what he can not lose.”  But remember, it is a LIVING sacrifice we are talking about…

         What does this kind of thing look like? We see a single woman volunteering in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit so that she can hold the newborn crack babies and whisper to them about Jesus… in case they don’t survive.  We see another young woman vow never to enjoy a family of her own, so that she can devote her life to the poor in the slums of Calcutta.  We see a young man, new wife and children in tow, leave everything he knows to go live in a jungle, to bring the Gospel to people who would eventually kill him. 

         We see it echoed in a father who might take a job that grants a short check, but allows him to be at every little league game.  We see an elderly woman with poor eyesight studying the scriptures in order to share with her Kindergarten Sunday School class.  We see a young mom up late with crying babies, humming them to sleep with the gentle sound of old hymns.  We see it in an old man, who rises early in the morning to build a fire and to make breakfast for his wife of 50 years, until the day that she wakes up to a cold house…

         Do you see now?  Did you catch a glimpse?  These are living sacrifices…  Most of them will be forgotten by the uncaring rush of time, but I tell you that their footsteps echo on into eternity.  These are not sudden, passionate sacrifices, made once for all in a moment.  These are the stalwart, devoted hearts of people who are living for a future time.  Some of them might die young, some might live in poverty, most will bear heavy burdens… but all of them will be rewarded. 

         And THAT is what I hope for you.  I hope… and hope… and pray and hope…  that each of you will live in such a way that warrants rich eternal reward.  Oh, I ache to see you before the Throne in that day, being blessed by the Fount of all Blessing.  Truly, for Him and Through Him and To Him are all things… 

I hope that you will remember that our Heavenly Father sees all things, and rewards every action in perfect fairness… and Grace.  I hope that you will remember that He always gives the greatest rewards…  serving Him is ALWAYS worth it.  I hope that you will remember, like Anne Kiemel, that He walks every lonely road with you.  Oh, how I hope!

         So that is what this is all about today.  I am not alone in hoping so much for you.  Your parents and teachers and friends… all of us hope for you.  We are anxious to see what masterpieces you paint with the canvases of your lives.  The road is tough…  Failure is a very real possibility…  But the reward is ever before you…  Oh how we hope…

In ancient times, the LORD gave Moses a prayer of blessing for his priests to recite to the Israelites who came to give offering in the Temple.  I would like to share that with you for my closing.  It is from the book of Numbers, chapter 6.

"May The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace."                            

Thank you.  Thank you very much.