This charge was originally given to graduating high school seniors at Ashland Avenue Baptist Church, May 3, 2026.

Graduation season comes the avalanche of advice—speeches often tell you: Chase your dreams. Follow your passion. Only do what moves you. 

Cotton candy. Every bit of it. It is simply bad advice for High School and college graduates. So let’s try something different. I want to share the kind of things that nobody tends to say at a moment like this, but that I think are far more valuable: real-world advice.

In one of my favorite college commencement speeches of all time, David Foster Wallace told a simple story at the beginning:

Two young fish were swimming along when they pass an older fish heading the other direction. The older fish nods and says, “Morning, boys, how’s the water?” The two young fish swim on for a bit, and finally one of them looks at the other and asks, “What the [heck] is water?”

His point was simple and weighty: the most important realities of your life are often the ones you take for granted because you are so completely submerged in them. A fish doesn’t make it long without water. 

So, “Do you know what you’re swimming in?”

The world that has been whispering the same four lies to you since you were old enough to scroll. You need to have it all figured out. The big moments define you. You need to be impressive. And you owe nothing to anyone, including God.

Today I want to charge you with four truths that cut against every one of those lies. These aren’t four steps to a successful life. They are four marks of a faithful one and a faithful life is the only one worth living.

What matters most is what you are most likely to take for granted: the person you are and who you are becoming. As you move ahead in this transitional moment and pursue your goals that is what really matters.

Be Ignorant — But Wise

There’s a kind of ignorance you need to make peace with. Not the lazy kind. Not the kind where you coast through life on cruise control with no ambition and call it faith. I mean the humble, courageous acknowledgment that you do not know your whole future. And that you don’t need to.

The world lies to you. It tells you to figure everything out first, then move. Get the clarity, get the plan, get the guarantees, then go something. The Bible’s message is radically different: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding… and he will make straight your paths (Proverbs 3:5–6).

Trust God and go. That is Scriptural wisdom.

You don’t need a map. You don’t need details. You need a decision. A decision about your character. Will you be faithful when no one sees? Will you be truthful when it costs you? Will you follow Christ when it’s unpopular? Those questions matter infinitely more than your major, your city, your career track. 

You can attempt to map out every logistical question about your future, and even achieve it all, and still miss the only question that counts. The world is full of very accomplished fools. The way of wisdom is different.

Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man (Ecclesiastes 12:13). That’s it. That’s the important plan.

The person in your situation overwhelmed with debilitating anxiety because they know they can’t control everything about their future, and the person who, in your situation, has no idea in any direction for their life and is not doing much of anything until they figure it out, both have the same problem. They are living as self-referential fools who are ignoring biblical wisdom. 

Think Small to Live Big

Here’s what so many get wrong. You’re going to think your life is shaped the most by the big decisions. Where you go. Who you marry. What job you take. Where you will live. And those things matter — I’m not dismissing them. But here’s the truth: the big moments are mostly effects, not causes.

Your life is not built on big decisions. It’s built in small, repeated habits that accumulate.

Think of a coastline. It isn’t shaped by a single massive wave crashing in. It’s shaped by the relentless, quiet, invisible work of water over the years. Not the wave. The erosion.

Jesus said, One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much (Luke 16:10). Paul said, Whatever one sows, that will he also reap (Galatians 6:7–8). You don’t drift into godliness. You don’t accidentally become wise. You don’t stumble into a meaningful life. You build it. Quietly. Relentlessly.  Daily. Repeatedly.

Whether you open your Bible tomorrow morning. Whether you pray when no one is watching. Whether you choose integrity in a moment so small, nobody will ever know. That’s where your life is actually formed. Win the day in front of you or you will slowly end up losing a life of true significance and you will be sabotaging your own happiness. 

Stop Trying to Be Impressive

You live in a world obsessed with being externally impressive. Achievements. Success. Attention. The relentless performance of a life that looks good from the outside. And I want to be direct with you: the more you try to be impressive, the less satisfied you will personally feel. Because “impressive” always has moving goalposts. There is always someone ahead of you. There always will be. 

You must make a distinction between résumé virtues and eulogy virtues. Résumé virtues get you ahead right now. Eulogy virtues make you worthy of honor beyond your life. Consistently ask yourself which one you are focused on building.

At the end of your life, no one is going to stand up and say, “She had a great GPA” or “He won some great trophies.” The measure of your life will not be accomplishments and awards. It will be things like: faithfulness, holiness, integrity, honor, kindness, generosity, boldness, and self-sacrificial courage. Those are the kind of things people talk about in a eulogy for a life well lived. 

Build them now. They aren’t the kind of things that make for a flashy, attention-getting Instagram page. They are the kind of things that linger and cause your life to be remembered far after you’re gone.

Micah 6:8 doesn’t say, What does the Lord require of you but a compelling personal brand? It says: Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.

Impressive fades. Character remains. Image building to impress is soul-deadening and debilitating. So don’t build a life that looks good online. Stop chasing the feeling of being impressive. Start becoming someone worth remembering.

Be Unashamed — Jesus Over Everything

I want to say something carefully, because I mean it with everything I have. Jesus matters most, first, last, and always. He is Savior. He is Lord of all. He is the preeminent One.

Don’t overcomplicate following Him. Gather faithfully with the church Christ gave Himself for. Give your life to reading the Bible, the Word of Christ. Pray daily in the name of Christ. Live in community with others who seek to follow Christ. Do service in the name of Christ. None of it is glamorous. All of it life-forming in a way that brings a happiness that transcends circumstances and a contentment no matter what you face.

I fear that for some hearing about the priority of Christ and living a life worthy of his name has become background noise to you. You may say, “At a moment like this, well, of course,” but I already know that. Like the young fish asked about the water. You don’t really think about it because you take it for granted.

Most of you have grown up attending church, have families that faithfully serve, and it’s very easy for complacency and mental apathy about Christ to creep in. But I implore you today: Don’t assume Him. Don’t take Him for granted. Don’t act entitled to know Christ, as though proximity to the gospel inoculates you from needing Him daily.

You are about to enter environments where following Jesus will likely cost something. You may need to stand alone. You may be misunderstood. You may be pressured to compromise. And in those moments, you will feel the pull to shrink back.

Don’t.

Be able to say with your life, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation (Romans 1:16). You are never freer than when you are unashamed of Christ. Not arrogant. Not loud for the sake of attention. Clear. Steady. Unapologetic.

The three points I made to you prior to this one don’t really matter without this foundational one. You can chase character, build habits, and pursue virtue, but if Christ is not at the center, you will still miss what matters most. He is not an add-on to your life. He is your life.

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? (Matthew 16:26).

The Charge

Graduates, here’s what I want you to walk away with. Not a feeling. A decision to see and focus on the things we often take for granted and ignore on a day-to-day basis. 

You don’t need to know your future, but you must decide your character. 
You won’t be shaped by the big moments, but by the small, daily choices no one else sees. 
You don’t need to be impressive, but you must be faithful.

And above all, do not be ashamed of Jesus Christ.

Be ignorant but wise. 
Think small to live big. 
Stop impressing and start becoming. 
Put Jesus over everything.

That is a life worth living. And that is a life worth remembering.