If you had the honor of addressing our graduates today what would you tell them?

If it was up to you to consolidate all your wisdom and advice into one brief statement what would you say?

There are 1,322 words in the entire Declaration of Independence.  The Gettysburg Address contains a mere 279 words and the Ten Commandments has only 179 words.  The Lord's Prayer comes in at 67.  And according to one report, a government publication on the marketing of cabbage contains 26,941 words.

One man said, “Give me 1000 words and I can say the Lord's Prayer, the 23rd Psalm, the Hippocratic Oath, a sonnet by Shakespeare, the Preamble to the US Constitution, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, and there will be enough words left over for just about all of the Boy Scout Oath.”

If you had a thousand words, what would you say?

 Today I want to share with you 4 phrases that have motivated me in the past and which bring new insight into my life whenever I take time to think about them.

My first bit of wisdom is 8 words long.  I found it on a tombstone in a grave yard.  When I was in junior high, my brother and I were hired to mow the grass in the cemetery just outside of Friona, Texas.  As I pushed the mower back and forth, I started to read the stuff that was written on the grave stones.  Mostly it was boring stuff; names and dates.  But some of the grave stones had little sayings, epitaphs.  Some were trite and schmarmy, but every once in a while there was a saying that I found interesting even thought provoking.  Have you ever been provoked to think?

Over the last 40 years, between mowing that grass and doing funerals, I have spent a lot of time in cemeteries.  I’ve even come to like graveyards; especially the really old cemeteries with big, huge shade trees and hand carved grave markers.  Those are the places where you will find some fascinating epitaphs; the quick little sayings that try to sum up a person’s life in 10 words or less.  Some of the sayings are serious, some wrought with deep emotion, others merely descriptive, and some were leg slapping funny.  In fact I know one man who goes to graveyards to collect epitaphs.

I remember one cemetery I visited that was on a series of large rolling hills.  A sparkling creek meandered between the hills and watered huge oak trees that were probably 200 years old.  Under the vast expansive shade of those trees lay the graves of generations of people. 

On that bright summer day as I wandered around in the green filtered sunlight I came across a headstone dated in the mid 1870’s.  It was situated inside a little cast iron fence.  Inside the fence were 4 other headstones.  Apparently the woman was buried with her husband, her two sons, and her daughter.  Her daughter had died as an infant.  Apparently both her sons and her husband had died in the Civil War possibly on opposite sides of the battle lines.  Given her life circumstances, the epitaph on her tombstone, which is the advice I am about to give you, is both shocking and inspiring.

Her head stone had her name, her date of birth and date of death and it said simply “Ever she sought the best, ever she found it.”

I don’t want to over analyze that bit of advice.  But suffice it to say that if you look for the best in yourself or in others you will find it.  It takes practice to look for and find the best.  Sometimes you will have to look carefully, and at other times you will see it without a moment’s thought.  

8 words to remember; an attitude to adopt as your own: Ever she sought the best.  Ever she found it. 

The next piece of advice is only 4 words.  A minister by the name of Robert Crumby lived in Nashville Tennessee.  He used to say that the secret of living a full, happy, and abundant life is to “Give in to Goodness.”

Give in to Goodness means that we abandon ourselves to the defining force that moves the universe.  Giving in to goodness means that when the opportunity to do something good comes along we do it.  If we can choose to do either good or harm we choose the good.  Goodness is righting a wrong, or forgiving an enemy.  Goodness is forgiving a friend or simply appreciating an act of kindness someone else does.

If you ever get bored, go looking for “the good” and then give in to its subtle and seductive power in your life.  Kind of interesting phraseology isn’t it?  Have you ever thought about the attractiveness of goodness?  In the Star Wars movies they always talk about being seduced to the dark side.  Why can’t we let ourselves be seduced in to doing good?  And here’s another thought to consider: what is the opposite of the dark side?  Does the light side have a name?  Does the good have a powerful and identifying theme music that sends chills up our spines?

Ever she sought the best.  Ever she found it.

Give in to goodness.

Four more words of wisdom.  Expose yourself to Enthusiasm.  In college I took a class called “music appreciation 301” it was a 3 hour music course at freshman level.  The professor, Dr. Albert Herf-Basie, was as old as anybody I had ever met.  His body was antique but his mind was sharp and his spirit burned intensely.  Even though he could not play racquet ball with me like my religion professor did, and even thought he could not play tennis with me like my philosophy professor did, or softball like my faculty advisor, his was a life force that shone brightly and enthusiastically.  The words of wisdom I learned from him were: “EXPOSE YOURSELF TO ENTHUSIASM.”

Enthusiasm is more than being pumped up jazzed and psyched.  Enthusiasm literally means God within.  Expose yourself to God’s power that is hardwired into you.  In practical terms Enthusiasm is that magical zest for life that overcomes inertia, banishes discouragement, and causes us make selfless decisions when everyone around us is putting self at the center of the universe.  Enthusiasm, God within, is the power that allows us to ever seek for the best and to ever find it.  Enthusiasm is the power of God that invites us to give in to goodness.

Expose yourself to enthusiasm.  The goodness of God within is contagious and it will energize and invigorate your life and banish your boredom.  

Even though I have several other words of wisdom, I will close with 3 last words of advice.  Usually they say that advice is only worth what you pay for it.  Free advice is therefore worthless.  This last bit of advice I can only give you because for 2 thousand years men and women have died so you could hear these last 3 words today.  The advice I give you is not free, it has been bought at the price of blood and death, sweat and agony, and it is your inheritance, the birth right given to you by those who have loved you for centuries before you were born.

When Jesus was asked to put his understanding of his faith in God in one statement, this is how that went: A lawyer, asked Jesus a question, testing Him, "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”  And Jesus said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the greatest and foremost commandment.  The second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Perhaps we could boil that down to just three words: “Trust God Always.”

As you journey through life, as you learn, and grow, and become both smart and wise, you will find no greater intelligence, nor any greater wisdom than those three words.  Trust God Always.  Or is it ALL ways?

The difficult thing with all these words of wisdom is figuring out what they mean and how they work in your life.  What does it mean to trust God?  That is a journey of a life time to discover the joys and benefits, the necessity of trusting God.  The church exists, to help us explore and understand what it means to trust God.  The church is here to support us in our explorations and questions and to call us into accountability when we get lazy.

Ever seek the best, and ever you will find it.

Give in to Goodness.

Expose yourself to Enthusiasm.

Trust God Always.

Next week I will share with you several more phrases of wisdom: one that is my personal favorite and one that is a favorite of Patrick’s.