If I were to offer the question, “What is some advice that you would describe as Timeless Wisdom?”, I wonder what information you would share. Would it be guidance in the form of financial planning? Would it be suggestions for how to maintain good health? Might it be counsel on how to nourish the relationships in our lives? For most of us, I imagine, there is a link to the values we hold dear, what aspects of life we consider to be truly important, but there is often Timeless Wisdom that applies to multiple areas of life, and this was my experience as I listened to Dr. Dub’s December 2022 commencement address.

Working in higher education provides numerous opportunities to hear commencement speeches, some more memorable than others, but most do their best to provide wise nuggets of advice for the graduates. But what I found intriguing about Dub’s particular speech for this ceremony is the fact that he was offering an updated version of the first commencement of Union University offered by President Joseph H. Eaton over 200 years prior. And the Timeless Wisdom originally shared by Eaton, in a culture completely different from today’s, still managed to resonate with me, particularly as I considered this wisdom to be so applicable to those desiring to cultivate a flourishing life.

What Eaton originally wrote for the graduates of 1823 applies to the graduates of 2023 and beyond. His Timeless Wisdom addresses the idea of encouraging students to not settle for being superficial graduates, but instead to embrace the qualities of a real scholar. “The spirit of the age in which we live is a restless spirit. It is characterized more by the desire for change and activity than for profound reflection…There is, therefore, a strong temptation on the part of colleges and universities to lower the standards, to shorten the course of study, and thus suit it to the high-speed expectations of the world.” If this was Eaton’s experience in the 1800s, what in the world would he think about culture today?

In asking graduates to embrace the qualities of a real scholar, Eaton and Oliver challenge all of us to consider how we think about education. Rather than asking, “When can I get through?”, what if instead students embraced developing themselves “to the full extent of their capabilities by intense, challenging, and long protracted exercise in mastering the difficulties and intricacies of [their] discipline.” What if, instead, students recognize that here at Union, “we desire your mind to be thoroughly cultivated, your judgment matured and strengthened, and your reasoning well developed no matter what your course of study. And, we desire that you would always be humble to recognize there is more to learn.”

Regardless of the profession a student aspires to, cultivating the life of the mind is vital to their flourishing and in the fulfillment of their God-given design. A flourishing graduate accepts the Timeless Wisdom that to succeed in life we must “Think not that your education is complete, that the discipline of your minds is ended, that you have no more to do than to apply the knowledge which you have already acquired to the various pursuits and necessities of life…The learning is never to end. It is destined to go on widening the sphere of its knowledge and rising higher and higher…All of this God has given you to be used. Let none of it lay dormant…It is this…that the great end of your life, is to do good, bless mankind, and reflect the image of Him who created you.”

Since that first commencement in the 1800s, there has been a long line of distinguished alumni who have paved the way for future generations of Union students to find success and fulfillment in this world. And I close with some of the most profound Timeless Wisdom that mirrors the counsel we find in Scripture. “Let your actions always be directed to the glory of God and the good of mankind. Leave monuments of your labors, not in lofty granite structures, but in the memories of the living. Be not so ambitious to engrave your names high upon the walls of the temple of fame, as to write them on tablets of human hearts. If you make it your objective to improve the minds and hearts of others, you will leave memorials that shall defy the wasting of time and outlive the proudest earthly structures.”

We do not know how many days we will be allowed to roam this earth but accepting the Timeless Wisdom to be a real scholar (college graduate or not) and not a superficial one, we are granted the opportunity to live a flourishing life, bringing honor to both God and all the people who will cross our paths during our lifetime.

Reference:

Oliver, S.W. (2022, December 17). Commencement address. [Speech]. Union University