Recently, I was looking on YouTube at graduates that tripped on their way to getting their diplomas.  Some of the videos were outstandingly agonizing, which made them hilariously funny.  There is something about unexpected misfortune during a solemn exercise that makes us laugh . . . hard . . . as long as it doesn’t happen to us.

In looking at video after video, some clear patterns emerged.  There are only so many ways that one can trip at graduation.  Some tripped on the fateful stairs—some going up and some going down.  Some tripped by looking out at the crowd, not watching where they were going.  Some tripped on their gowns.  Some had shoe malfunctions—broken heels and the like.  But all of the falls had this in common—they all fell hard; and they were all funny.

As you, the class of 2011, leave school, there are several ways that you can trip up that are not so funny.  I’m not talking about literally falling down; I’m talking about ways that you can trip and fall in life.  In these also, there are clear patterns that emerge, but the end result is the same—the one who falls misses out on much joy and blessing.

So, I want to share with you graduates about two ways that life can trip you up and then how to enjoy this journey we call life.
The first tripping point is all too common among those who have been raised by fine families, who have a clear moral compass, and have received the excellent training and instruction that your high school experience has provided.  You have learned the importance of hard work and how your hard work pays off.  You have learned how to abide by rules, sometimes rules that seem silly to you, but you’ve seen the blessing that comes from following the rules.  You have learned the importance of learning—that learning even for its own sake has an intrinsic joy.  You have learned to become ambitious. Some of you are clear in your ambitions and all of you have figured out that your parents don’t want to support you forever.  So, you want to do what it takes to make the money you need to achieve your goals.

All of these—work, rules, learning, and money that brings independence—are not bad in themselves—in fact, there is virtue in them all, properly placed.  BUT the big tripping point for graduates like you is legalism.  Legalism is a placing of the gifts of God ahead of God Himself.  Work is good, but you can trip over your work if you make it your god.  Following rules is good, but you can trip over your obedience with both hypocrisy inside you and condescension of others if you put your following of rules ahead of God.  Learning is good, but even if you are learning about God, the learning becomes a puffed up idol if you love learning more than you love God.  Money is good, but, as Scripture teaches, the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.

So, first and foremost, class of 2011, do not trip over legalism.  Jesus reserved his harshest criticism for those among Him who had tripped in this manner—He said of them, “You snakes!  You brood of vipers!  How will you escape being condemned to hell?”  Those are bold words, harsh words, even.  But they reflect what God really thinks of the “good” person who justifies himself.

The second tripping point is almost the opposite problem.  Some of you, when you leave the nurturing womb of high school and the caring of your parents, will be sorely tempted to fill voids in your life with pleasures other than God.  You will discover that, contrary to what you thought you’d been taught, lightning does not always strike you the moment you violate your moral compass.  And you will be tempted to think, “Other people have bad effects from sin, but I know how to handle this.”  And you will be so sadly wrong.  This second tripping point, license, covers lots of things.  There are substances that many in our culture imbibe, and you will be tempted to see as a substitute for God.  There are pleasures in art, music, athletics, and entertainment that fill voids in our hearts momentarily but cannot take the place of God.  Some of you will be tempted to do just enough to get by.  Laziness, or acedia, is so common to your generation that one psychiatrist has written a book about it entitled, “Still Bored in a Culture of Entertainment”.  

Don’t settle for occupying your time.  Use it well.  Any of your grandparents will tell you that time passes far more quickly than a young person can realize.  So, make every moment count.  Another way license can trip you up is in the area of your love life.  The second most important decision you will ever make is whom you will marry.  Love, of course, has lots of fun associated with it, for that is how God ordered it.  BUT many trip by thinking that the love of another person will be or can be perfected.   Others trip by giving more of oneself than the present commitment permits.  And more than half of your contemporaries, Christian and non-Christian, will trip up on love by seeing their marriages fail.  Beware when any pleasure takes the place of God.  He alone deserves our adoration and praise.  As Paul wrote to the Roman Christians, “clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”

Dear EWO class of 2011, I am confident of greater things of you.  I am confident that you will avoid these two tripping points of legalism and license.  Do you want to know why?  Well, I could say that it’s because most of you have heard some outstanding sermons by the new pastor over the past few months, but that would be too self-congratulatory.  Rather, it is because I believe that you have developed right ways of thinking here at East White Oak.  This is very different from knowing what to think.  You know how to think and how to express what you think.  This is Christian education at its finest.  From the children’s ministry to your high school experiences here at EWO, you have been taught not just what the Scriptures teach, but why biblical doctrine and worldview is so important.  You have been taught how to put Christ on display in your life, not just through ministry opportunities and experiences but by looking at godly mentors who have modeled for you what it means truly to be a follower of Jesus Christ.  

So, let’s think for a bit about how to enjoy this journey we call life.  Believe it or not, God has created us to enjoy our lives.  This does not mean that we will have problem free lives, far from that.  What it does mean is that God has hardwired into our souls the desire to enjoy.  That enjoyment finds its ultimate fulfillment in the enjoyment of God Himself.  “You have made us for Yourself. And our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You,” is how Augustine put it.  The Psalmist says, “You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” There once was a man whom many considered wise.  People traveled for hundreds of miles just to hear his wisdom.  He had pursued many paths, some of them included the two tripping points I just mentioned.  After he considered all the paths, and even experienced most of them, King Solomon made this conclusion, “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth.”

How can you do that?  How can you remember your Creator in the days of your youth?  I would like to offer three suggestions.  First, don’t forget the church of Jesus Christ.  Many of you will have multiple fellowship opportunities, from Bible study groups to college fellowships.  Because those groups can be so special and close, and because the church can appear rather dull in comparison, there will be a temptation to say that church is an afterthought or a bonus rather than an essential.  Don’t believe it.  The church is the only organization on this planet where what you do will last forever.  As Jesus said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”  He did not say a fellowship group or a Bible study.  Something essential to our spiritual health occurs when we are in a committed fellowship of rich and poor, young and old, male and female, of every race.  Church can easily be an afterthought for you in the coming years.  Make it an essential, and you will remember your Creator.

Secondly, don’t neglect your family.  They provide an important balance in your life.  Right now, it might seem like your parents don’t know too much.  Mark Twain said, “When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished by how much he’d learned in seven years.”  Your family is a special gift both in pointing you to Christ and in being a helpful accountability for remembering your Creator.  If there’s something in your life that you are too embarrassed to tell your parents, the chances are good that that something is not a good thing.

Finally, remember from where your satisfaction comes.  Ultimately, it does not come from accomplishment, even though that reflects the imago dei (the image of God).  It does not come from friends, even though that reflects the nature of God as a triune communal being.  It comes from a righteousness given by total grace from God to us by the shed blood of Jesus Christ.  As the Apostle Paul reflected on this, he declared, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.  I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.”
And then, he shares his life goals with us.  My wife inscribed the reference of this verse inside my wedding ring.  Here is Paul’s life goal:  “I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death.”  I don’t believe that there is a better life goal.  That does not mean it is always a pleasant journey.  For while knowing Christ and the power of His resurrection can be the greatest highs that can ever be experienced, there is also the prospect of sharing in his sufferings, which draws us nearer to Christ than we can imagine.  And all of it makes life a journey that enables us to rejoice always.

EWO class of 2011, congratulations.  Avoid the two tripping points of legalism and license.  Remember your Creator in the days of your youth.  And don’t get on YouTube by tripping when you receive your diplomas at graduation.  May God bless and kiss you all with His approval and joy.