Block Out the Noise and Use Your Voice

Here are my notes from the baccalaureate address I had the honor of giving to our amazing graduating seniors last weekend.

One of my favorite verses is Psalm 46:10: “Be still and know that I am God.”

With all our community has been through in the last few days let’s take a few seconds in silent prayer and think about all of those affected by the tornadoes last week.

So I was asked to speak today.  Needless to say, I was surprised.  It never really crossed my mind.  I struggled with what I was going to say to a bunch of graduating seniors, many of whom I am close to from working in Student Ministry with and being here in Granbury for the last 5 1/2 years.  I was assured by your valedictorian that I would figure out what to say.  And I hope I am remembering this correctly, but all she said when I let her know I would be speaking today was she said was that I would do awesome.  All it took were some simply heartfelt words of assurance, and I knew I would figure out what to say.  I gave a friend some advice recently that I think is always good advice.  I simply told her to be who you are.  That is what I plan to do today, because all of us, including me are created in God’s image.  So here goes.

I am not a very philosophical or sophisticated person. In fact I believe the last philosophical (if you can call it that) debate I had was over coffee with some youth and we came to the conclusion that the turning point in the Star Wars universe was when Anakin did not turn R2-D2 into a bad robot when he had the chance.  If he had Darth Vader and the Empire would have won.

But I found a philosophical quote that I think applies today:

"When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it.  Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all the work that had gone before."

I would like to take credit for this quote but I can't.  It's credited to some guy named Jacob Riis, I don't even know who that is.  I had to go look it up.  It's called the stonecutters creed.  I know nothing about stonecutting.  In fact the only reason I know this quote it was I saw a sign of it hanging outside the San Antonio Spurs locker room when I was watching a spurs game on television a few years back, so I looked it up.  Please no one tell me the score of the spurs game, since they are playing as I speak.  But I’m sure that won’t be a problem because none of you have your phones on you anyway.  But there is a lot of validity in the stonecutters creed that applies to each of you today.

You have hammered away at this high school thing for 4 years, you have hammered away at this school thing for 13 years.  And that doesn't even include pre-k.  So here you are.  All the work that has gone before has brought you to this point.  So now we ask to question that all of you probably want to know: where do I go from here?  Because you are not finished, this is not the pinnacle of your life.

One of my favorite church videos is a NOOMA video entitled Noise.  The premise of the video is that there is so much Noise going on around us in culture that sometimes we don't sit and listen to what God says to us.  I looked at my calendar for May recently and I have someone in my household has something scheduled 25 of 31 nights this month.  I can't imagine what you guys have been going through as you prepare for graduation parties, senior recognition, family coming in, and prom.  And that doesn't even take into consideration today and graduation itself.  Your life has probably been pretty noisy for the last few months and especially the last month.  There has been a lot of noise around you.  I suspect that just a few of you have a condition referred to as senior-itis.  But I'm sure that's only a few of you, right?

Right around the time I was asked to speak today I was listening to a new song entitled American Noise by Skillet.  It's only been available on iTunes for about a month and won't be released on cd until June.  I heard it and quickly thought it would make a good graduation song.  It speaks of letting love speak through the American Noise.  I would like to reference some of those lyrics today.  I can’t sing so I will spare you my less than stellar singing voice.  The lyrics go like this:

Angry words and honking car 
Satellites and fallen stars
Distant dark blue radios that whisper down my boulevards
Ghosts and chains rattle in the attic
Broken headphone filled with static 
Lonely room you’ve got nowhere to run
Three... Two... One for all and all for One

-Noise: Are we all so "plugged in" that we are missing the point?  Are we missing what's going on around us?  Is social media such as Facebook and texting becoming the substitute for face-to-face interaction?  The answer is a lot of times and in a lot of situations, yes.  But should it be?  You will need face-to-face interactions moving forward.  If you are going further in schooling you will need help with studying and you will probably have to do group projects.  If you are going straight into the work place environment you will need face-to-face interaction to learn and be proficient on the job.  You will need to depend on others at some point for help.  When you have those face-to-face interactions who do you want others to see?  You want them to see the real you, with all of your flaws.  Not one of us is perfect.  But each of you was created by God just the way you are.  Do you want someone to see a bratty kid or do you want someone else to see the face of Christ?  Don't overlook the opportunity for face-to-face interaction.  Face-to-face interaction will become much easier if you be who you were created to be.  Look past the static.  Get plugged in to who you are.  Do not be judged by what songs you have on your iPod.  Be judged and known for who you truly are, you are a child of God.

Times will be bad times will be good
Things I wish I hadn't done and some I wish I would
Cutting through the American noise
you’ve got a voice and a song to sing (and a song to sing)
Drink deep in the morning
Drink deep in the morning
See what the day will bring

-We have had tough times in just the last few days.  All of us in this room have been affected by the tornadoes in some way or know someone who has.  It is important to remember that we are all in this together.  97 of the 110 homes in Rancho Brazos were damaged in some way.  Everyone can help in some way.  It is hard right now, families were let back into their neighborhood just yesterday.  But we can all do something, if nothing else think about those affected and simply pray for them.  It is tough but the community has resources and has banded together to help: One for all, and all for one.  The red cross was turning bottled water and supplies away on Thursday.  Not because that were ungrateful but because the outpouring of love was so great that they already received more than they needed.  I saw a message on facebook thanking some youth for coming to help clean up some trees in pecan.  I spoke with a man from South Carolina who is bringing a team of 8-12 men with chainsaws down here for a few days to help out.  Another man from Michigan who works for an embroidery company is sending boxes of shirts to Granbury free of charge.  All those things are great but for me the lasting image I have right now of the tornadoes is not the pictures I saw in the paper or the footage I saw on the news, or the helpers I spoke with.  It is of two stories.  A Rancho Brazos boy named Jaire who I have played baseball with at Rancho Brazos, who I saw at their soccer game yesterday.  He comes up to me and says: “Hello Mr. Kevin, how are you and your kids.”  While his neighborhood and home have been damaged he asked how I was doing.  He was so thankful to be out playing soccer, having fun, and getting back to normalcy.  It will be tough for him in the months ahead.  But seeing the smile on his face was wonderful.  All of the kids from Rancho Brazos were in good spirits and checking and asking how all the weekly volunteers were doing.  They have been thinking about others.  Another lasting image I have is of a woman being interviewed in a church on Thursday.  And after the fear and devastation that happened she says:  "We will never forget what God did for us.  We will rebuild on the same spot."  Now that is faith.  That is what matters.  She saw what was important.  She was thankful to have her family and thankful to be alive.  She saw God protecting her and her family.

-There will be tough times, you can count on it.  I hate to have to tell you this but you will make mistakes, you will fail. It may be big or it may be small.  You may fail a test, you may fail a class, you may lose a job.  I had a 3.87 GPA in high school without studying very much at all.  I thought I could approach the next chapter of my life in the same way.  I couldn't have been more wrong.  I failed multiple classes in college (I even failed a class twice, which meant I had to take that class 3 times.)  I let noise such as video games, television, and music distract me from what was important.  I made mistakes, and I made a lot of them.  Which brings me to my next point.

-It's how you react to these mistakes that will define you.  I did not react well to the mistakes I made at first.  I did not use the resources I had at my disposal to help.  When I failed a test early, I dropped a class instead of working to get my grade up.  It didn't matter to me that it was a waste of hundreds of dollars that I had paid for the class in the first place.  When I had to tell my dad that I had failed a few classes, well let’s just say he was not happy.  When you make mistakes, learn from them, don’t repeat them.  If you repeat them it becomes a pattern and that patterns leads to you being in college for off and on for 10 years.  Don’t be like me in that regard.  Learn from others mistakes.  Learn from my mistakes.  Learn from your mistakes.  People might remember when you make a mistake.  I guarantee you that they will remember how you respond to your mistakes.

La da da da lift up your voice
Let love cut through the American noise
La da da da lift up your voice
Let love cut through the American noise
Slammin' doors and cell phone rings 
Hurricane force of silent screams 
Don’t know what to believe 
Bend the rule just to break it 
You're so tired you got to fake it 
But you just wannabe someone 
Three... Two... One for all and all for One

-Everyone wants to be somebody.  Everyone in this room is somebody.  Everyone in this room has an important story to share.  Whether you believe it or not, you do.  My story is important.  The teachers around you, their stories are important.  All 387 members of the graduating class….the stories are important.  We are all trying to find out who we are in God.  We need to get through all of the noise around us and seek who we are in God.  Because there is always going to be noise.

-My youth will tell you that I probably have attention deficit disorder, I have never been diagnosed by the way.  But that's only because I don't like going to see doctors.  Sunday school lessons that should take 30 minutes usually take about 50 minutes.  I would like to think that it is because students your age go off on tangents.  But more often it’s because I go off on tangents, I take an idea and run with it.  I generally go off on tangents about things of this world such as movies or funny videos.  When the youth bring up an example, I just pile on and get us further off topic and it takes a few minutes to rangle us back in.  All of this is Noise.  And I am the world's worst at blocking out noise.  I'm so bad at blocking out noise, I have to set an alarm on my phone to schedule a time to be noise free.  When I block out the noise and hear what God is saying to me, I leave my phone, my computer, my iPod my video games, all my superhero action figures, yes I have those, and everything else and just walk to a secluded place.  If I’m at church it’s usually the prayer garden.  If I’m at home it’s generally the backyard.  The place is always outside.

-In the first chapter of Mark it says: In the morning, while it was still very dark, he (being Jesus) got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.  And Simon and his companions hunted for him, they said to him, "Everyone is searching for you."  Jesus answered, "Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for it is what I am to out here to do."  (Mark 1:35-38)

If Jesus walked to a secluded place to pray, why can't I?  Why can’t you?  Jesus got away from all the "noise" around him and went to a secluded place to think about teaching, to think about how to spread the gospel.  Do you take time to listen to what others are saying to you?  Do you get away from all the noise and all the static to listen to what God has to say to you?  I hope so.

So I will end with this:  The song American Noise ends by saying:

No matter who you are you’ve got a voice 
Why don’t you use it 
Sing your own song take all the noise
and make it into music 

-A properly folded American flag was found buried in the rubble and debris.  The fire chief said if you find em, fly em.  May 15, 2013 the day we came together, the day we were made stronger.

The community of Granbury have used their voices since Wednesday.  As a community he must and are helping.  People have seen those affected by the tornadoes, people they probably don’t know and have stepped up to help in any way they can.  For everything you and your families have done, thank you.

So how are you going to use your voice moving forward as you graduate?  How are you going to tell your story?  Because graduation is one chapter in your life.  The rest of your story is yet to be written.  It's up to you to tell the world how your story ends.  Use the voice that God gave you.  Use that voice to help others.  Be who you were meant to be.  No matter who you are, you've got a voice….why don't you use it?