Baccalaureate 2008

Sharon and I spoke at Nyack College's Baccalaureate for the Manhattan Campus this past month (May 15). Below is the transcript of our 5 minute individual exhortations.


GARY ALLEY:

Greetings, graduating seniors. As you approach the end of your time here at Nyack, my wife and I can identify a little bit with you. A few years ago you arrived at Nyack—three years ago Sharon and I arrived here. You came with purpose and a leading from God often directed by relationships and circumstances—the same as us. On Monday, you will finish a chapter in your life as you graduate and leave this community, as you once again, are being directed by God according to His calling. And Sharon and I will also be leaving with you, as we return to Israel to continue our studies and work there. One chapter finishes, a new chapter begins, and your life story continues.

This graduation is a milestone, but you also stand at another crossroads. You now have new choices to make—Which way to go? How to proceed? Where will I live? What job will I take? What ministry will I invest in? What needs to change in my life? Just as these past relationships— your family, your church, your friends, and your work colleagues might have helped you during your studies with encouragement, finances, prayer, and moral support, so crucial for your success thus far, I want to leave you with a couple of points concerning future relationships.


My first point is: seek relationships that hold you accountable.

We all have friends. The reason they are our friends, is that we have something in common with them; we get along and enjoy each other’s company. This is good up to a certain point, but often these friends accept you so completely as you are, that they never inspire you to change for the better. They never push you to mature to the next level. A true friend will keep us accountable and encourage us to be a better person. Prov 27:6 says, “faithful are the wounds of a friend while the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” A friend’s tough love can be good for us, while endless compliments of kisses are dangerous.

As a teacher, I want to be a friend to all of my students but at the end of the day, I can’t give someone an A because I like them. If I truly love my students, I will give them what they have earned…even if it is an unsatisfactory grade.

Strive to build relationships with accountable friends who will not let you compromise or settle for mediocrity.


My second point is found in James 2:13: mercy triumphs over judgment.

Before we all go out tonight and start giving our friends tough love, we should hold steadfastly to this precept, that mercy should weigh in on our judgment. As a teacher, I hate giving bad grades. And the last thing that I want to do is flunk someone. I spend all semester trying to help students pass. First, I give them a syllabus which is a roadmap for their success. It tells them what is required of them. I try to work with difficult personal situations and offer second chances when necessary and sometimes even accept late work within reason. I try to treat them as I would want to be treated (Golden Rule). But at the end of the semester, grades come due, exams are finished, papers are finished or not finished, and the registrar’s books are closed. There is a judgment. The truth must be known. You either pass or don’t. No one is given an education, it is earned. Your diploma is a judgment and you sitting here tonight have been judged as worthy.

So when our friends, family colleagues are going through a hard time, we need to treat them with the compassion of the Lord. Love them as yourself. Endless pity is not the true spirit of compassion. Honesty is a prerequisite for love.

Therefore, let me conclude by reiterating my challenge to you tonight: cultivate relationships that hold you accountable, where honesty is used for healthy critique and speak that truth in love with mercy as your balance.


SHARON ALLEY:

Congratulations on arriving at this milestone on your path of life. Your effort and perseverance has been rewarded. Of course, this is not the end, it’s the beginning, the commencement.

I hope as you reflect on what you’re taking away with you from college, that it’s more than a diploma that will get you a better paying job.

I’ve heard a saying about higher education: that you learn more and more about less and less, until pretty soon you know everything about nothing (that last part must be the PhD stage that I’m about to enter).

The point of college is not so much learning information as much as learning how to process that information—learning how to think, evaluate, solve problems, come up with new solutions, be creative; having your perspective broadened by examining other’s ideas.

So my advice to you today is to take what you have and go for it. Don’t just hang up the degree and consider it a done deal. Knowledge and truth must be multiplied. And the way to do that is to put it into practice and pursue even more (whether formally or otherwise). Exercise your mind.

Some people, especially Christians, fear knowledge. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard I Corinthians 8:1 quoted out of context, “knowledge puffeth up, but love builds up”, as a reason not to be too knowledgeable. That’s about as logical as saying we should sin more so that God’s grace can abound. Besides, God, through Hosea (4:6), seems to think we don’t have enough of it, because he says, “my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.”

From my experience, in myself and others, the more knowledge a person gets, the more humbled they are in realizing that they don’t know much.

Obviously, knowledge without a living relationship with God is dangerous, but without a living relationship with God, so is ignorance (and so is anything for that matter)! Faith is not contrary to knowledge, and they actually work with eachother, as I hope trust has been your experience at Nyack. Knowledge is a gift from God. No matter what your field of study, we should all be lovers of truth, hungry to learn, to get knowledge.

I want to leave you with a thought on the parable of the talents (Matt 24:14). A talent was a huge lump of silver, approximately the size of a book, like a quarter of a million dollars today.

You’ve all been given a Nyack education… a combination of skills acquired, friendships made, mind broadening, faith strengthening… think of that as your talent. I’m sure you all remember that the one who got five talents put his money to work and gained five more, and did the one who got two talents. Then there’s the servant who took his one talent and buried it. Why? He says “Master, I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.” What is the master’s response? You could have at least done a conservative investment by putting it in the bank so that I got interest.

The surprise punch in this parable is that the master never spelled out any directions. He expected his servants to act like he would and do what they thought was best with the money to make more money. And two of them did just that. Well, the last servant didn’t lose the money, but he gets reprimanded. “For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.” Again we hear this message after the parable of the sower.

Luke 8:18- “therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him.”

So there’s no safe, static place. Even a womb spits you out after 9 months. Life is a journey and God is with you. You’re either going forward or backward. You’re either making investments and earning, or you’re losing by not investing. I remind you of this, not to scare you—on the contrary, to give you courage to take risks. I’m not saying to be rash and impulsive, but think, apply your brain, and take risks. Try to put into practice the truth you’ve learned. Be creative, take a chance. When you do, your knowledge and truth will multiply.