The following address was delivered by logic and rhetoric tutor Mr. Alan Link at the commencement ceremony for the Class of 2023.
How wonderful it is to see each of you here, graduating and moving on to the next challenge in your life. This community will miss you; I will miss you.
I first got to know these students back in their 9th grade year, where we studied formal logic together, and then in 11th grade, where the subject was rhetoric. I remember these classes as fun, though I do recall a particularly difficult march through Aristotle’s Rhetoric. Nonetheless, we met that challenge and overcame it, and having seen your speaking and reasoning skills become so strong, I know much has been accomplished while you were here.
You know, a few weeks ago when Luke Morton challenged me to give this address, I agreed trying to look relatively confident that I could face that challenge – a rhetoric teacher shouldn’t appear worried about giving a speech? Yet inside I was anxious, I mean, what can I actually share with these students that will bless them, or at least, not bore everyone to tears? So, I consulted the internet to find out what are the best topics for a graduation address. I looked at a lot of sites, watched a lot of YouTube videos to compile a list. And looking at the list, well, they’re not bad, but…OK, here are just a few:
- “Find your passion,” well of course, if you can do what you want that’s great, but lots of times you have to just do things that are necessary, like take out the garbage, change the diaper, support a family.
- “Never give up,” generally I agree with that one, unless you realize there’s something else that would really be a better use of your time, then maybe you should change course.
- “Take risks,” again, you have to take some risk, but when you’re learning to walk a tightrope, it might be good to at least start with a net below you.
My favorite of the bunch is this: “Follow your heart.” You know, I found a dozen or more quotes from our cultural wisemen and wisewomen saying some version of “follow your heart.” It’s like a modern mantra. I think my favorite quote ending with “follow your heart” was from the philosopher, Paula Abdul, who summed it up by saying, “break the rules, stand apart, ignore your head, and…follow your heart.” It even rhymes!
Of course, there is a significant measure of truth in these themes. But they’re like much of the wisdom of our world, in that they apply only in some context, or just to some extent. Or they have the veneer of truth, but inside, well, they leave you wanting.
I think the expression, “follow your heart,” is like that. It seems to mean a couple things to people: first, you should go with your intuitions and passions, as opposed to listening to logic or tradition or whatever thoughts that induce doubt in your mind. Second, when it comes to important things, you shouldn’t let others unduly influence you or lead you, but be the unchallenged captain of your soul. In some circumstances, I suppose this advice could be right. But as an organizing principle for your whole life, I think it’s really the opposite of what is right.
And that’s ironic, because unless you are “following your heart,” our world generally denigrates being a follower, and praises being a leader. It considers followers second class, at best. And if they mean by “follower” that you never get off the sidelines or you shirk your responsibilities, then I would agree. But if they mean that only leaders matter, or that there’s nothing more worthy to follow in this life than your own heart, well, then I must disagree.
There is a time and a way to lead, but also to follow. In chapter 10 of John’s gospel, he recalls a time when Jesus is walking in the temple, in the place known as Solomon’s Colonnade, a porch supported by a series of columns and named after Israel’s wisest king. The unbelieving Jews are demanding that Jesus tell them plainly who He is. But Jesus speaks with His divine wisdom and instead responds by saying, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”
Here’s a secret that everyone from business executives to media darlings to political officials to internet influencers may not know or recognize: everyone is a follower. The question is not whether they follow, it’s who they follow.
Consider with me Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. In chapter two he describes our lives before God intervenes and gives us life in Christ this way, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of the world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.”
According to Paul, like the followers of Jesus, all of unredeemed humanity are followers as well, but followers of their own passions and ultimately, followers of the evil one. They may lead people, businesses, even nations; but what’s important in the spiritual realm is not who they lead, but who they follow. And so also it is true of us.
Your families, your churches, your friends, and your school – Granite, have all worked to support your embrace of the Lord, and your lifelong following of Him in spirit and in truth.
But as you move on from this place, you will encounter new challenges. Sometimes those challenges come head on, directly attacking your faith or confidence in the Lord, like a senseless loss. Sometimes the challenges are more subtle, encouraging you to love something more than the Lord – your success, security, comfort, respect from others, etc. And in either case, you can get lost.
Part of my motivation in serving at Granite is to help students be strengthened in mind and spirit so that they don’t get lost. Instead, we all want you to remain strong in your faith in Christ; not just surviving the challenges that come your way, but flourishing as God has called you, and in whatever place you find yourself, to stand for truth.
That brings to mind an expression that you may have heard (though I doubt it unless you’re as nerdy as I am), which has come to be known as Miles Law. It’s named after an American, Rufus Edward Miles who led several large government agencies in the mid-20th century. He gave a speech in 1948 where he observed that you could explain the position or stand a person would take on an issue based on which organization they worked in.
So if you worked for the Navy, you would say, “we need more ships!” But if you got transferred to work for the Air Force, you would say, “ships are great, but what we really need are more airplanes!” He summed it up by saying, “where you stand depends on where you sit.” It’s a phrase that political analysts might use, but people use it more generally to say that your view of a situation is shaped by your personal relationship to it.
I’d like to add a corollary to Miles Law; I suppose I’ll call it Link’s Corollary (since no one else will). I’d say that, “where you stand depends on where you think you sit.” Imagine that the seat you’re sitting in now is in fact an electric chair. When you realize it, you’re going to hurry to get up and away from it before something bad happens. But if you think you’re sitting in a comfy vibrating chair at the mall waiting for someone to turn it on, you might stay seated a little longer than is good for your health.
So it’s not just where you are actually seated that’s important, but where you think you’re seated, as well. Now why do I bring this up in this context? Well, after Jesus was resurrected and ascended to heaven, he took His seat with God the Father. That “seating” of Jesus showed His true position, not just able to sit because he was victorious over his enemies, but seated in heaven because He was the ruler over everything that is, the ultimate sovereign.
This point was very important to the early church: for proof, Christ’s seating in heaven is referenced or mentioned in all three synoptic gospels and the book of Acts, Peter puts it in his letters, St. John envisions it in Revelations, the writer of Hebrews cites it multiple times, and Paul includes it in several of his epistles.
It’s especially important to Paul because it conveys not just Jesus’ position, but our position, as well. How can that be? You see, in Paul’s theology we are best understood spiritually as being “in Christ.” And because we are so identified with Him, we die with Him, we are raised with Him, and spiritually in a way that’s hard to grasp, we are in Him even now.
So back in Ephesians 2 after he describes how we formerly were following the evil of the world, Paul says, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, He made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
As we learned from the study of classical philosophy and scripture, what is unseen is even more important and true, even more real than what is seen. You, by all appearances are just sitting here, but in an important spiritual reality that the Lord has already accomplished, you also are seated with Him in heaven, for remember, He is above time and knows the end from the beginning.
You can draw several meanings from this passage, but today I’m interested in just one. If – in Christ – you are seated in heaven, then that is your true home. That is certainly where you are going, but while you remain here, the ruler of that heavenly realm is who you are to follow, and no one or nothing else. And the way you live here, your confidence, your fidelity to truth, how you stand, is a result of where you think you ultimately sit, of where your true home is. As C.S. Lewis wrote, “Once a King or Queen of Narnia, always a King or Queen of Narnia.”
If I were to speak my own word of advice to you in the midst of the whirlwind of our culture, I think I would say this: don’t just seek to “follow your heart,” but seek to have the heart of a follower; and not just a follower of anyone, but a true follower of Jesus, for from Him and through Him and to Him we are bound. I can think of no better way for you to live and flourish.
May God bless you all.
Alan Link teaches logic and rhetoric at Granite Classical Tutorials.
True Ends 