This is the graduation season. Recently, I watched on television snippets from commencement addresses around the country. More are to come. Remarks from some of the commencement speakers were memorable. Others were forgettable. Some were even regrettable.
Don KirklandFor a commencement address by Jerry Vines, the words memorable and instructive apply. The assignment for the pastor emeritus of First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla., was formidable, but filled with opportunity. May 18 was graduation day at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. The recent death of the school’s founder and chancellor, Jerry Falwell, was as much on the minds of many attending the ceremonies as the awarding of diplomas.
Vines had been asked weeks earlier by Falwell to bring the commencement address. As for the basis for his message to the graduates, Vines said, “The Lord led me to three words.” The words to which Vines was drawn came from the apostle Paul’s second letter to Timothy. Contained in the fourth chapter, they are haunting words: “Come before winter.”
Paul was in prison. Clearly, he had experienced a premonition of his impending death. He knew, too, that the Mediterranean Sea would be impossible for Timothy to cross in the cold of winter. And so his admonition to his young prot?g?: “Do your best to get here before winter.”
Fully aware of his situation, Paul wants Timothy to visit him – and to bring three things: the coat he left in Troas, his books, and his scrolls of scripture.
Vines told the students that Paul’s requests reflect needs, not just of the apostle himself, but of all people – the coat, physical; the books, intellectual; and the scriptures, spiritual.
The passage itself, Vines underscored for his audience, is a recognition that life is brief, opportunities must be seized, and the necessary things in life must be taken care of.
As used by Paul, the words “come before winter” are filled with poignancy. Simply put, they mean “come before it is too late.”
Vines exhorted the Liberty University students to express gratitude to loved one while they still had the chance. “You,” he said, “have an opportunity to thank them for the sacrifices they have made, to thank them for the prices they have paid, to thank them for the tears they have shed, to thank them for the prayers they have said.”
Of greatest necessity, he told the students, is the act of making Jesus the Savior and Lord of their lives. He conveyed a sense of urgency in such a decision. Referring to the death of Falwell, Vines told the students they have have felt in recent days a “tenderness toward the gospel they may never feel again.” The tendency in life, he pointed out, is for a person’s heart to “harden over the years.”
The graduation address by Vines speaks wisely and urgently to every graduate this spring. It is a reminder to you and me as well. At best, life is too short. Too often, it is tragically brief. We do not have a minute to waste. Do what must be done. Say what ought to be said. And do it “before winter.” Before it is too late.