Every other year I get to have the last word with the graduating seniors at Dayton Christian High School, my alma mater and the school where I have taught since 1977. Below are the words I gave to the Class of 2012 right after they moved their tassels.

Congratulations! This is a most significant achievement in your life. In fact, graduating from high school is a lifetime achievement award.

Do you remember how old you were when you first recognized the importance of the year 2012? You’ve been working toward this night for more than a decade, and tonight you can finally breathe a sigh of relief: you’ve done it. Most of you will go on to further studies, but you will never again work for this many years to get a diploma. The next time you finish something that takes you eighteen years to complete will probably be when your own child graduates from high school. And you will feel a great sense of accomplishment that night as well.

I'm going to speak frankly now. If you go on from here to get a good education, get a good job, find a good person to marry, settle into a nice neighborhood, find a good church, be a good mom or dad, a good neighbor and a good employee… and if you’re satisfied with behaving yourself well and living comfortably… we will have failed you miserably.

I haven’t given the past 35 years of my life to help teenagers learn to behave themselves. Your parents haven’t sacrificed so much for so long just so that you would turn out to be a well-adjusted and productive member of society.

It was my mother who first coined the phrase “Educating for Eternity.” And that’s not just a slogan. It’s what we’re all about at Dayton Christian School. I love my work. I love the fact that I get to spend all my professional energy creating in people’s lives a change that will matter not just for decades but forever. I may not see some of you again in this life, but I’m looking forward to seeing you in the next life and hearing how God used you to build His Kingdom.

Between now and then some of you will live comfortably, some of you will suffer terribly, some of you will be called to professions and ministries that will be difficult and discouraging, as teaching sometimes can be.

But none of that matters. It doesn’t matter whether you make a lot of money or a little; it doesn't matter whether or not you live in comfort and security.

All that matters is that you follow Rabbi Jesus, that you discover your role in God’s Story, and that you play it well. Everything else is details. Don’t get distracted, don’t get discouraged, by the details.

You often heard me thank God for letting me have a part in what He has been doing in your life. I meant those prayers. I really am grateful for that opportunity to make some small contribution to His work in you.

Thank you, parents, for your sacrifice and your commitment, for entrusting your children to us, to my classroom.

And now, my blessing, from the Epistle to the Hebrews:

Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.