I sat amazed at the wisdom of our high school valedictorian last Friday night as she described her concept of success in life. There she was, an 18 year old senior speaking to her peers about the importance of losing ones life for the sake of the Gospel.
Megan graduated that night with better than a 4.0 GPA. She received the Florida Academic Scholarship from Bright Futures and turned down a scholarship to Stetson. At graduation, she challenged her fellow seniors to define success not in terms of academic performance, but in terms of losing ones life in order to gain Christ.
I have had the honor of attending 12 college graduations and 8 high school graduations in the last 20 years. This is only the second time that a senior speaker was more profound and insightful than the guest speaker.
Megan's speech was less than 5 minutes long. But her 5 minutes contained the eternal truth that life is valued not by what we can accumulate, but by what we are willing to lose in order to know God and make Him known.
We have all heard how perverse our world has become. Just watch the news for a few minutes. However, I heard something different last Friday. There is hope for this generation, my human friends. Megan's voice is evidence of that. The lives of each one of those graduates can give proof to the hope we have in Christ. Who knows what God has in store for them and us? God has not given up and He has not thrown in the towel. Instead He challenged us to be people of the towel. God help me to find places to serve in the name of Christ so that others may find His peace in their hour of need.
Thank you, Megan, for reminding me that success in not about how much I can gain. It's more about how much I am willing to lose for Christ's sake.
God bless you, my human friends! Go find a towel and wash some feet!
