To the Graduate

Congratulations on finishing your first twelve or thirteen years of "official" education! This is a huge milestone, and I think that most of us who have gone through it ourselves recognize that such an achievement today requires a more herculean effort than it did back "in the old days."

What lies ahead may seem daunting -- indeed, it is -- but it is also laden with opportunity to truly make a difference (for the better) in the world.

The political, social, and religious turmoil that one hears in the news every morning is more heated and magnified, more prominent and more relevant than ever before. In this age of information overload and prolific social networking tools, the heightened awareness on any issue and the ability to reach the multitudes with personal opinion are coupled to form a powerful tool with which any individual can quickly "learn and respond" more effectively than even just five years ago.

The older generations are not simply placing the crown of leadership on you and abandoning you as we wander into the sunset. Rather, you are being groomed. We will continue to lead, to pave the way, until you are ready; and when you are ready, we will counsel and offer any and all discernment we can muster; but, when you are ready, it's really your ball game.

I urge you to pay attention to the issues; you can't ignore them and expect them to resolve themselves. Some of our older generations have tried that in the past -- or are trying it even today -- and it does not work. There are things that simply have to be addressed, downhill spirals that simply must be stopped.

Politically, never ever forget that the government was created by the people, for the people, and not the other way around. The government was created to defend and protect individual rights and to defend the country as a whole. The recent shifting toward a more socialistic type of government, relying more heavily on government to provide aid and to redistribute wealth, is a sham.

The government that reaches its hands into family life and that begins to tell the family how it is to educate its children; how it is to worship; and how it is to discipline its children, is a government that has overstepped its bounds. Such a government is one that no longer exists for the people, but for itself. Such a government is only a self serving entity, bent on acquiring more power and on curtailing individual rights.

Don't buy into the lie that more government is better government.

Socially, never ever forget that the family is the core unit. Granted, with the proliferation of divorce, one's family may look nothing like the traditional family of old. Still, the family is the unit to which one must declare unbridled loyalty; the family is the unit that must remain protected. Do not allow the government to meddle in family life; do not allow the government to say how the family is to raise its children.

Most important of all, don't abandon religion. The God who created this universe is the same today as he has always been. He is a God who loves you and who wants you to do your best with the opportunities in front of you.

Now, more than ever, society needs God, and politics needs a Godly society. The society that proclaims God is dead is lying to itself; the society that says we are our own gods is a society that has allowed itself to drown in a cesspool of greed, lust, and (above all) pride.

Graduate, you will have much to do as you move this country forward. Your action list is going to be staggering, and it's possible that when you wake up each morning the list is going to be longer than it was the night before when you went to bed.

You will have so much to do that the only way you can possibly approach the tasks before you is to begin each day in prayer. There are some of us who will join you as you get down on your knees. There are many who won't join you, many who will scoff.

Let them scoff. They've tried to fix things with more government; they've tried to fix things by removing God from society; they've tried to fix things by sticking their fingers into the family. And it ain't working.

When you're ready, seize the leadership.

Graduate, we need you.