The Question Every Graduate Must Answer: Does Character Still Count?
Eureka Science Education Founder and Science Educator Paul Laywell delivered this commencement address to the Covenant Christian Academy graduating class of 2025.
Head of School, Dr. Thomas, CCA Board of Trustees, Mrs. Pryor, my colleagues, proud parents and family members, and, especially, the members of the Covenant Christian Academy class of 2025, it’s a tremendous privilege for me to share this evening with you.
Seniors, tonight marks the conclusion of the opening chapter of the story God has called you into. It’s a chapter that’s unfolded rather slowly over almost two decades, but it’s also a chapter that’s going to conclude rather quickly just a few minutes from now when you move that tassel on your cap from right to left after you receive your diploma.
The next chapter of the story begins at that very same instant and, if the opening chapter was something of a marathon, this next chapter’s going to be an all-out sprint. It’ll begin with a summer that’s going to pass in the blink of an eye and, for many of you, the summer will be followed by moving away from home, forging new relationships, and finding your way around a college or university campus.
This next chapter’s going to be filled with watershed moments that’ll just keep coming at you in wave-like succession one after another.
For some of you, these moments will include college graduation and, perhaps, additional education like graduate school, law school or medical school. For at least one of you, one of these moments will include taking an oath for military service. Many of you will begin a professional career, and, believe it or not, for some of you, one of those pivotal moments will be getting married and maybe even starting a family.
You’ll see most of these things coming at you and you’ll welcome the majority of them, but sometimes, in God’s providence, these seminal moments will catch you off guard and be unwelcome. In a moment like that, remember that God is too good to be unkind and He is too wise to be mistaken. He will see you through.
At the same time you’re living out this chapter of your life, those who love you the most- your family- are living out different chapters of their own story and their story includes accepting the fact that you’re carving out your own space in the world and they have to let you go. You see, everyone in God’s grand story is facing some sort of challenge and there’ll be times when those challenges stress you or those who love you. Inevitably, someone’s going to say or do something regrettable and, when that happens, I encourage you to demonstrate a pragmatic understanding of grace and mercy by avoiding the temptation to think the absolute worst of those around you and I urge you to forgive without hesitation or reservation. In doing these things, you’ll provide a weary and disillusioned world with a gentle, yet profound, reminder that “the kingdom of God is at hand.” (Mark 1:15)
Paul Laywell gives the 2025 commencement address to graduates at Covenant Christian Academy
Now, I’d like to tell a brief story and it’s a story that’s only slightly longer than some of your letters to your robing sponsors last night. After I tell the story, I’ll ask a question and then share my hope and prayer for you. I want you to know that I’m committed to doing everything I can to avoid making this a memorable evening for any of the wrong reasons like speaking too long, repeatedly mispronouncing a word or having a wardrobe malfunction. I especially hope to avoid that last one.
In early December 2005, twenty-three-year-old Ian Rosenberger was clinging desperately to an ocean buoy off the coast of Palau in the Western Pacific Ocean. He’d been there for almost twelve hours and he ached all over- from the top of his head all the way six-feet eight-inches down to the soles of his feet. Sounds bad, but it wasn’t as bleak as you might think.
Ian, a dolphin trainer from Florida, wasn’t clinging to that buoy because his aircraft had crash-landed in the Pacific nor was he there because he’d had to abandon a sinking ship. He was there because he was competing for a one-million-dollar prize on season ten of the television show, Survivor. That season’s competition had begun with twenty participants and, at the time he was quite literally hugging that buoy, he was one of three competitors remaining. If he won this particular challenge, he’d be guaranteed a shot at competing for the million-dollar prize.
This challenge was a diabolically simple, yet brutal, test of both physical stamina and mental resolve and this was its first appearance on Survivor. Since then, however, it’s become a familiar challenge and it’s it known to contestants and viewers, alike, as “Bob-Bob Buoy.” “Bob-Bob” isn’t just a name, it’s a very accurate description of what these buoys do; they bob up and down and when the seas are rough, they can bob up and down rather violently.
“Bob-Bob” bears no resemblance to a standard navigational buoy that’s built for stability in rough seas. These crude buoys consist of several empty metal barrels that provide buoyancy and a metal pole that rises upward twelve to fifteen feet from the barrels like the mast of a small sail boat. A competitor standing atop the barrels of his or her buoy hops several feet up the metal pole to a platform that, by design, is too small to accommodate both of their bare feet. These buoys are built expressly for nonstop bobbing. They also sway in a metronome-like fashion from side-to-side and they do all this under a relentless Western Pacific sun.
As I said, when this challenge began, Ian was one of three competitors remaining; the others were Katie Gallagher and Tom Westman and, over the course of the competition, Ian and Tom had developed a genuine friendship.
Katy dropped out after five hours and as the challenge approached the twelve-hour mark, Ian could see Tom fading. If Ian outlasted Tom- and he was confident he could and would- he’d win the challenge and, based upon the rules of the competition, he’d have the right to eliminate either Katy or Tom from the contest. If your goal is to win one million-dollars, it’s a no-brainer; you eliminate the stiffer competition and the stiffer competition was Tom, Ian’s good friend.
Ian saw the path to victory and the one million-dollars, but as the hours dragged by, he found himself in the throes of a moral dilemma. Ian was an Eagle Scout and as he clung to his buoy, he began to think of the Scout Law which begins with “A Scout is trustworthy. A Scout is loyal.” He knew he’d been neither during the competition and later said, “I’d been backstabbing people and I was planning on doing that to my best friend in the game. I realized I would lose that friend if I continued playing the game in the same way and every time I’d withdraw money from an ATM, it would bother me.”
So, Ian quit- and I don’t mean he quit the challenge; he quit the competition entirely. He gave up the challenge, then he asked Tom to eliminate him- which Tom reluctantly did- and he forfeited his chance to become an instant millionaire.
Later Ian said, “I realized it’s not just winning the million. It’s how you win it. It’s not just accomplishing something; how you accomplish it is important.”
Standing atop “Bob-Bob Buoy,” Ian Rosenberger faced a question that most of us in this room have already faced too many times to count. It’s not a complicated question, but it is demanding; when we’re confronted with this question, we’ll answer it- whether we know it or not. It’s also relentless; we’ll face this question almost every day of our lives and there will even be days when we’ll face it more than once. And, the way we routinely answer this question has huge implications for our lives.
The question I’d like to ask you, seniors, is prompted by the opening words of Proverbs 22:
“A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches…”
Those words were written by Solomon in the tenth century B.C. and he was a man whose estimated worth in twenty-first century dollars ranges from the billions to a little over two trillion dollars. Solomon may be the wealthiest man to ever walk the earth and, yet, he wrote that a good name should be chosen before great riches. In other words, Solomon considered a good name to be more valuable than great riches.
To you and me, a name is just something written on a birth certificate or a name tag. However, to anyone in the ancient Near East hearing or reading Solomon’s words, a name referred to someone’s character or real self. A name conveyed what that person was morally and ethically and it reflected what that person believed to be most valuable.
Solomon was wealthy beyond imagination, but he understood that a good name was not something he could purchase; it was something he had to cultivate day by day, decision by decision. When billions or trillions aren’t enough to purchase something, there’s only one word to properly describe that something: priceless. Solomon believed that a good name is priceless.
So, seniors, here, at last, is my question: Is a good name more valuable that great riches? Was- correction- is Solomon right? Is a good name more valuable that great riches?
Now, I’ve taught most of you and, as you know, I have the unique ability to see thought bubbles hovering over heads. Right now, several of them read, “Laywell if I knew what a good name looked like, I might be able to answer your question.” So, let me help you.
A person with a good name is known for their integrity, honesty, and compassion. They are generous with their time, energy, words, and resources. The decisions they make and the actions they take seek the best for everyone involved.
If you’re known for a good name, people trust you. Having a good name means that you live with a tender conscience and, if you wrong someone, you own your offense, take the steps to make things right, and, if necessary, you make restitution.
In December 2005, Ian Rosenberger was hanging on to “Bob-Bob Buoy” when he decided that a good name- being considered trustworthy, loyal, and a good friend- was worth more to him than a million dollars. It shouldn’t surprise us, then, that he would subsequently found Thread International, a company that removes trash from poor neighborhoods and turns it into textiles and a nonprofit that helps Haitian families escape poverty by helping them find good jobs.
Seniors, throughout your lives, parents, grandparents, pastors, teachers, and other mentors have, in a variety of ways, tried their very best to instill in you the value of a good name. However, you’re living in a world obsessed with the pursuit of some shallow, ill-defined happiness and the key to that happiness, according to the world, is great riches.
It grieves me to think that there might be some among you who have already succumbed to this lie and I simply remind you of the question Jesus posed to His disciples in Mark 8:
“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”
It’s actually a rhetorical question and the understood answer is “absolutely nothing.” While there is nothing inherently wrong with the pursuit of wealth, career achievement or social standing, if the pursuit of these things necessitates neglecting our souls, we do, in fact, lose everything.
For those of you already engaged in the never-ending development and maintenance of a good name, the world needs the light of integrity, honesty, compassion, and generosity that you bring. I would be remiss, however, if I didn’t take this opportunity to alert you to the reality that, in a world that places a premium on getting all you can while you can get it, being a person who values a good name more than great riches is truly countercultural and, thus, often unwelcome.
I began by saying I’d tell a brief story, ask a question, and then share my hope and prayer for you. I’ve taken care of the first two items, so I’ll complete my to-do list by sharing my hope and prayer for you. Covenant Christian Academy class of 2025, I hope with every fiber of my being that you will choose a good name before choosing great riches and that you’ll do so in gratitude for all that our loving heavenly Father has done for you. My prayer is that you will pursue, not the great riches of this world, but the “unsearchable riches of Christ” that Paul talks about in his letter to the Ephesians.
In just a few minutes, you’ll move that tassel from right to left and the next chapter in the story will begin. The omnipresent question, “Is a good name more valuable that great riches?” awaits. How will you answer?
Thank you.