Justine Christiaanse’s Valedictorian Address
for Emmanuel Baptist Christian School’s Graduation on June 3, 2006
A traditional valedictory address would begin with:Mr. Flamm, members of the school board, Pastor
DeCourcy, Pastor Benefiel, faculty and staff, family and friends. But it would be difficult and wrong to
fly through your names without stopping to thank each of you individually for the great impact that you
have had upon my class, the class of 2006.
We, the class of 2006 would like to thank you for being here to witness this momentous event in our
lives, and more importantly in helping us to arrive here.
Mr. Flamm, as long as most of us can remember, you have been the head of this school. Although we may
have spurned your directives at times, we appreciate the many hours of hard work and dedication that you
have given to bettering our education, especially this past year. Thank you for caring enough to see that
godly, loving instruction and academic excellence is the bench mark of our school.
Members of the school board, all your wisdom and work behind the scenes are a true testimony to your
devotion. Some of you continue to be involved here even after your own children have graduated. We
thank you.
Pastor DeCourcy, we have enjoyed your messages on the PEANS of life and the instructional stories of
when you were a wee lad. More importantly the spiritual truths and exhortations during chapel will stay
with us for many years. Thank you for imparting truth which is eternal.
Pastor Benefiel, thank you for making us feel so welcome here at the church and for all your work with
regards to the new school. New students will never know how lucky they are to have air conditioning!
Faculty and staff, when we first entered Emmanuel all our teachers and even our principal were either
Miss or Mrs. Now in high school we have learned from the Misters as well. We owe each of you our
sincere thanks. Your love for Jesus has been taught and caught. Thanks especially to our advisors for the
last years: Mrs. Covrett and Mr. Rodgers. You have helped us plan events, earn money, execute skits and
crawl through caves. Bless you and thank you. I hope the summer is long enough to help you recover!
Family, you have always supported and encouraged us through all kinds of circumstances. From the time
when we were young tikes dreaming of being policemen and pro-athletes we were nurtured through
example and bathed in prayer. Thank you for loving us and sacrificing so we could be instructed through
the prism of God’s Word. Thank you extended family for coming a distance to be proud witnesses here
today.
And friends, through the good, the bad, and the ugly, we thank you profusely for your listening ears and
your caring hearts.
The wise King Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes that there is a time for everything. There is a time to plant
and a time to uproot, a time to weep and a time to laugh. We are here today to laugh and weep, to reflect
and then uproot. By the grace of God we have made it this far. We started out here at the church, moved
with trembling hearts to the high school down the road, and we’ve come full-circle to finish our school
careers here on this same platform where we graduated from kindergarten. In elementary we wanted
nothing more than a long recess, a Lunchable and Fruit-by-the-foot. Our desires have matured and grown
much more costly. We want cute and reliable cars and college educations that cost more than our parents’
first homes. This is it, our graduation day of our senior year. June of 2006 is finally here. But this is just
another beginning. Also in Ecclesiastes, Solomon declares that life without purpose is meaningless and
futile. All activity is a chasing after wind.
Perhaps the feeling of futility in life is what has caused The Purpose Driven Life, by Rick Warren to be
one of the most influential books of this decade. It instructs Christians that life does have purpose and we
must live life purposefully. Rick Warren identifies three metaphors that are revealed in the Bible and
which I would like to address today. My fellow classmates, life is a test, life is a trust, and life is a
temporary assignment. Your perspective on life will influence how you live. To fulfill God’s purposes
you will have to challenge conventional wisdom. These 3 metaphors teach us God’s view of life.
First, life is a test. On graduation day you don’t want to hear about more tests. Yes there will be
GRE’s, M.Cads, L Sats and many more tests. But truthfully, everything in life is a test providing
opportunity for growth; everything has significance. God continually tests people’s character, faith,
obedience, love, integrity and loyalty. There are numerous accounts of tests in the Bible from Adam and
Eve being tested in the Garden of Eden, to God asking Abraham to offer his only son Isaac. Some passed
the tests, and many including Adam and Eve failed their test. Our tests as a class were at first small like
climbing the multiplication table in Mrs. Cousins’ class to seeing who could blow Skittles out their noses
the farthest at outdoor ed. We had cumulative tests in Mrs. Wolf’s Bible classes and we’ve been tested by
the state of Ohio and by college boards. Some tests we’ve passed…..Some tests like the fire of 2005 and
the spelunking in West Virginia brought unity and developed character. Character is both developed and
revealed by tests. But most of our testing up to now has been in a very controlled environment. Our
parents, our church, and our school have nudged us back onto an acceptable path; they have made us
succeed. Our greatest life tests will be taken in the next 4 years. We will not have Pinocchio’s strings
manipulating us. Thankfully, we have God’s Word stored in our hearts. But will we choose to listen to it,
or will we be conformed to the standards of this world? I pray that each of us will choose what would
please God….and our parents and teachers. We, class of 2006, have been trained to endure hardship as
good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Not one of us should fail our tests of faithfulness to Christ. Some tests may
seem overwhelming, but the good news is that God wants us to pass the tests of life. He will never allow
the tests we face to be greater than the grace He gives us to handle them.
Let us resolve to pray for one
another and to be found faithful in ALL things. Like Daniel, we must purpose in our hearts to not defile
our bodies or our minds.
As we leave these familiar surroundings, we need to take the knowledge we
have learned and put it into practice. Life is a test. Strive for A pluses!
The second metaphor is life on earth is a trust. In Psalm 24:1 it says the world and all that is in it
belongs to the Lord, the earth and all who live on it are his. God has blessed each one of us graduates with
talents and gifts. One gift is that we collectively were able to attend Emmanuel and learn so many
valuable lessons. Our energy, relationships, and resources are all gifts from God. We must be wise
stewards of whatever God gives us. We must be faithful stewards in small matters and in large ones. We
have been entrusted with good and godly training. Now we must use this training to bring glory to God.
As we seek careers and contemplate the future, unlike the world, our goal should not be to seek and
acquire status and wealth. Getting and having are not goals of the Christian. God owns it all. We must
discipline ourselves to think outside the box of this world. Our talents, time and gifts are to be used to
worship God and to bring glory to Him. At the end of the day, we want to hear the “Well done, good and
faithful servant.” Class of 2006, we have been given much, and much will be demanded of us. Life is a
test and a trust. The more God gives, the more responsible he expects us to be.
For the third metaphor: life is a temporary assignment. Earth is not our final home: we were
created for something much better. Job 8:9 tells us that our days on earth are as transient as a shadow. We
are just travelers, passing through here on earth so we shouldn’t grow attached. As Christians, our
citizenship is in heaven and so we should not integrate ourselves to appear as one of the citizens of this
world. Compared with eternity, our time on earth is extremely brief. When as children we watched the
clock hoping for recess or the 3:00 o’clock bell, time would crawl by so very slowly. Those of us who
have served detentions know that an hour can seem like an eternity. But now that we have reached the
plateau of graduation day and we look back, time has galloped by. It was just yesterday we were leaping
off the monkey bars or stepping off the cliff while rappelling on senior trip. And when we are changed
from mortality to immortality life will have seemed so short. We must make every minute count for
eternity. C.S. Lewis observed, “All that is not eternal is eternally useless.”. Our identity is in eternity and
our homeland is heaven. When we grasp this truth, we will stop worrying about “having it all” on earth.
If we are friends with the world we are enemies of God. This class in particular will remember that this
world is passing away. Life on earth is as temporary as our high school lockers were. The fire of 2005
was Emmanuel’s 9/11. There was life before the fire, and life after the fire.
Everything can be lost in
one night and things can truly be here today and gone tomorrow. So, we must seek out those things that
will last forever. The pursuit of happiness is not what life is about. We must remember that life is a test,
a trust and a temporary assignment. We are preparing for something that is even better. The things we
cannot see will last forever
Class of 2006, I want to congratulate you on your accomplishments thus far and send you with hope and
confidence of even greater things to come in the future. There is no better conclusion than the conclusion
to the book of Ecclesiastes. “Of the making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the
body. Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his
commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. “I invite you to return to Emmanuel 10 years from
now, should the Lord tarry. In 2016 let us commit to come together in the summer and to see if we are
passing the tests, whether we are being wise stewards, and whether we are focusing on eternity. So mark
it on your calendars! Mrs. Covrett and Mr. Rodgers, you’re invited too.
faithful.
May each of us be found