The chance to be here at Harding is such a gift. We students have such a great opportunity to garner education, develop spiritually and serve others. Harding is an excellent place, because there are so many opportunities to grow and be challenged if one seeks that out. Of course, this does not happen automatically but with deliberation and will — you cannot expect to grow as a person by simply sitting on your hands. I really encourage all of you to invest in your present environment. Trust His words when I say that God is faithful; when you step out into the darkness, uncomfortableness and the awkwardness, he will not only support you, but lift you up.

Here at Harding we are being prepared to leave and to enter the world mature. And as I said, Harding is a great place to do such. It is a place filled with light — a place where we can grow and burn brighter and brighter for Christ. Provided you work hard and invest the opportunities given to you and ones you sought out, you should leave here not only with a college degree, but as a mature, developed disciple.

But what are you going to do with this college education and spiritual experience?

The world tells us to go to college so that we might be able to better obtain the “American Dream.” A degree is supposed to be a gateway to a world of opportunities leading to financial and societal affluence. And I do believe these are important gains of an education, but I also believe we are called to more.

What is the purpose of this Christian school? Is it solely that we have a better chance of getting a desirable job? Is it so that we may trade this cloistered place for another isolated Christian island?

Here is a quote from Ion Keith Falconer: “I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light.”

Falconer was born into a wealthy aristocratic family, the son of a Scottish Earl, in the mid 1800s. He had things pretty together: he was a champion cyclist and a professor at Cambridge University versed in German, Hebrew and Arabic. But he considered a life lived in his sheltered world one not worth the calling his Lord gave him. So he took his flame to a city in Yemen where he lived as a missionary until he died from complications of malaria at the young age of 32.

Enjoy your time here at Harding. Grow and mature in knowledge and in the Lord, and continue to fan the flaming passion that He has placed upon you, whether it be for business, art, nursing or ministry. Absorb knowledge and grow, but when it is time for you to leave this place, do not just become another member of a church, settling with a title of “Christian.” Harding should not be a place where we simply transplant Christians from one safe spot to another, but rather a centrifuge where Christians are launched out in all directions to be the hands and feet of Jesus. Do not remain content to travel through life, succeeding at that which has passing meaning, rather venture into the world; venture into the dark.

A flashlight is far more effective at its job of illuminating a dark room because there is more to illuminate. A flashlight does not have much to contribute to an already lit room. Some of you may feel this way about your time at Harding, that you do not have much to contribute. But when you leave here, ready to engage the world as a person molded after Christ, go to the darkest place you can, shine that light and do small acts with great love. Just as Falconer said and lived, take the light that has been brightened during your time here and simply go. Do not waste your potential, but fulfill it to its highest. Go beyond not hiding it under a basket, but shine your light in the spot where it can be most effective. Since you only have one candle, one life, take it to those who need it the most.