Jennifer Blacklock

We went to the high school graduation last week, and for the first time ever I was interested in hearing what the speakers had to say.

Guess I’m old now.

Most of the speeches I did consider to be fairly boring (so maybe I’m not that old), but some were intriguing. A couple truly inspired me (even in my ripe old age).

And the actually inspiring ones were sure not the ones that sounded like all the other graduation speeches everyone’s ever given and heard. They were sure not the ones to repeat the same overused “inspirational” phrases. Instead they broke the pattern and formula of the typical speech. They told real stories. They had a genuine voice and a unique point they actually wanted to get across, not just words meant to try to look good or fill time.

Yesterday we had a homeschool field trip to an onion farm. Not the first place I’d think to go looking for motivation and inspiration, but, boy, was it there. Everyone I chatted with was equally impressed and inspired by the family’s organization and planning, thoughtful hosting, beautiful (like, magazine-perfect beautiful) home, and crazy level of management of this huge operation: fields you can’t see the end of- like green, onion oceans; a literal factory for sorting and bagging, tons of employees, the complexity of selling produce to big stores like walmart and across the country- paperwork, labeling, being able to trace everything back to their farm.

Besides being amazed at the scale of their operation, there were also smaller wonderful things like being surprised to discover that fresh onion fields being harvested smell delightfully, unexpectedly, fresh and clean; watching the kids’ joy as they plowed through onion stalks higher than their waists and pulled with all their might to unearth those gigantic purple bulbs; even just our mom-friend’s knowledge as she explained and answered every question cheerfully and excitedly. 

So, basically, everyone there got super excited and inspired by… onions. How? Why?

The graduation speech that was the best- I mean, for sure, no argument- was the salutatorian who was just unapologetically herself. Quirky and goofy- even a little obnoxious. She was giving the same message as everyone else- you know, “you’ve all worked hard and now is the beginning of the rest of your life”- but in a totally unique and personal way. 

At the onion farm, the thought was apparently never even entertained by our hostess that we would be anything less than thrilled about onions. It’s their life. And it is thrilling. Because they put their all into it and their selves into it and it’s joyful and exciting even though it’s “just” onions.

Colossians 3:23-24 says “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” 

We’re not all eccentric salutatorians, and we’re not all onion farmers, but we all have something God has given us to work at, work on. Things to build and grow and develop.

There are a couple temptations to be careful of: first, not throwing ourselves into it, not putting in our all— whether the work is dentistry or motherhood or writing or tractor-operating— for fear of being vulnerable or misunderstood. Passion is kind of weird in our world. People are uncomfortable with it. But if you’re passionate about fixing airways or about fatherhood or about playing baseball or piano, you better not hide it! You better not dull it to fit in to a dull world! We need to work at it with all our hearts. Now, that doesn’t mean becoming a “workaholic” and forgetting how to take time for other things, crowding out relationships and rest to serve the idol of (certainly either) power/status or money. That’s the other temptation and just as bad or worse as not putting your heart and all into the work God has given. 

The goal is to remain passionate as well as balanced while thoughtfully and heart-fully striving to steward well the works and skills and passions and projects and services God has entrusted to us. Being yourself, the person God made you to be— without all the fitting in and people-pleasing and man-fearing and posing— that’s a huge (and not easy) part of doing your work with passion. And when we do that, it is thrilling- an inspirational, joy-filled fulfillment to us and those around us.