Your Life's Quest

Tomorrow night I get to speak at a high school graduation in Ohio. I'm looking forward to it. Here's an early draft of what I'm going to say (there will still be some minor revisions):

As a parent, I have on occasion had the opportunity to sit through piano recitals. Have you ever been to a piano recital?

Some students are brilliant, some are difficult to listen to; but at the end of every song, the parents of the musician applaud wildly as if they have just heard the world’s greatest pianist. Why?

Because they are there, not to be engaged by the music, but to support and celebrate the hard work of their children. Months of practice and lessons have led the family to the recital. It is a celebration of the student’s most recent accomplishments and a demonstration of their newly acquired skills.
But the recital is not the goal. Learning to play the piano is like a Quest, the goal of which is a lifetime skill which allows for an on-going enjoyment of music. The recital is just a temporary target along the journey. It’s a demonstration of the student’s success and progress as they work toward the completion this great Quest.

Life is like a quest. We are all on a journey toward something. The Bible speaks often of the path we are on, and the road we are following. Tonight as you contemplate your future, and your life’s quest, I would like to suggest four simple thoughts that can aid you in your journey:

Set unrealistic goals
Expect failure
Focus on success
Celebrate progress

1) Set unrealistic goals

• A good piano teacher will choose recital songs which initially seem impossible. After hours of frustration, figuring out new combinations of notes and sometimes awkward timing, slowly the piece begins to sound like music. Eventually, practice becomes about finger muscle memory as the piece has been mastered and is now being memorized. Finally, at the recital, all are made aware that the student has mastered a higher level of piano artistry, one that several months ago seemed out of reach.
• This same principle applies in life. The loftier the goal you set, the higher you will fly to reach it. The surest way to achieve nothing is to set goals that require no effort. More often than not, the seemingly impossible can become the probable when honest effort is employed toward an unrealistic goal.
• My son loves soccer, but has never loved juggling the ball. Last week I offered him a reward if he could triple his highest juggling total by the end of the day. He began working at it, chipping away at the unrealistic goal; and even though he put forth a mighty effort, he fell a bit short. However, rather than be discouraged, we celebrated his progress. In one day, he had more than doubled his previous best.
• If you will commit in life to setting unrealistic goals, and honestyly apply yourself toward accomplishing them; you may not always completely achieve the goal, but you will always surprise yourself with the progress you have made toward your ultimate quest!

2) Expect Failure

• Musical perfection doesn’t happen overnight. Every piano student fails repeatedly before they succeed. Every good teacher understands this. By patiently reminding their students that missed notes are a part of the process, they minimize frustration and seize opportunity for growth. Students who are willing to acknowledge their mistakes, will learn to fix them, and ultimately eliminate them.
• We all make mistakes. We can choose to be embarrassed by our shortcomings and attempt to cover them up with deceit and manipulation, or we can choose to embrace them as an opportunity to make ourselves better. Those who choose to ignore and hide their errors are destined to repeat them. Those who expect to fail, and learn from their failures will grow and will likely not make the same mistake twice.
• Wednesday night, Detroit Tiger’s pitcher Armando Galarraga pitched what appeared to be a perfect game, one of the rarest occurences in all professional sports. But at the very end, he was robbed of the honor when Jim Joyce, the first base umpire, called a runner safe, even though TV replays showed him to be out by a step. Jim Joyce had a choice to make. Once he realized his mistake, he admitted it, and did something few if any umpires have ever done. He went to the player and offered him a sincere apology. Compare Jim Joyce to the people you know who can never admit they’re wrong, who are always trying to explain and give excuses for their shortcomings. In his failure, Jim Joyce seized an opportunity to grow, and in the process he earned the respect of all those around him.
• You will fail. You’ll fall short, you’ll make mistakes, you’ll miss goals and opportunities. But in your failure, you can grow, if you’ll embrace it and learn from it. Expect to fail.

3) Focus on Success

• Often piano students cannot properly understand or play a piece until they’ve heard someone else play it. By playing the song accurately for the student, a teacher can demonstrate what success looks like. Having seen and heard a piece played properly, the student possesses a standard against which they can measure their own performance. Because they know what success looks like, they can focus their energy on becoming successful themself.
• Learn what success in your life’s quest looks like. Read books by those you admire. Talk to those who are older than you, who have travelled the road ahead of you. What will success look like for you in five years? What about next year? How will you know next month if you’ve been successful? Take the time to figure out what success in life will look like for you, and then focus on that.
• Have you ever played with a Rubik’s cube? I had one when I was young. Some of my friends figured out how to solve it, but I never did. I did on a few occasions get it “solved”, but only because I took the stickers off and put them back on in the right order. Looking back, I now understand why I failed at my goal. I was focusing on all the wrong things. I focused on myself and refused to learn from others. II was too focused on my failed attempts, and my growing frustration. Instead of focusing on success, and learning the solution from others, I stopped focusing all together and took the easy way out.. As a result, I never succeeded.
• Whatever you are pursuing in life, find people who can show you what success looks like, and follow them and learn from them. Focus on their success, and make it your own.

4) Celebrate Progress

• The ultimate success for a piano student is a lifetime of piano mastery. The short-term measurement of success is a well-played piano recital piece. But even before the recital, students achieve many small successes. The first time a piece is completed without stopping, and the first time a piece is completed without mistakes are successes. When the student practices the prescribed number of times, they’ve succeeded and are making progress. A quest is not successful only at the end. Success occurs every time progress is made in the right direction.
• Take time to celebrate progress in life. When you accomplish an unrealistic goal, take yourself out for coffee; when you use a failure to grow, throw a party for yourself. And help others celebrate their progress. When you see a friend succeed, take them out for ice cream or send them a congratulatory note on facebook or email... or even paper.
• I remember hearing a story when I was young about two soldiers in basic training. One evening, they were instructed to run such a great distance that it would take them most of the night to finish. After running for several hours one soldier was ready to give up, convinced that he could never complete the task. Before he quit, his partner convinced him to just run with him to the next street light in the distance. Once they arrived at the light, they congratulated each other and decided to run to the next light. They continued throughout the night, running from light to light, congratulating each other on each small victory... until finally, they had successfully completed the task.
• Celebrating each of life’s victories is a sure-fire method to avoid discouragement, to encourage a positive outlook, and to sustain you in the middle of a long and difficult task. Be a celebrating person. Celebrate your own progress, and the progress of others.

Tonight, this ceremony is a celebration of the conclusion of one of life’s stages, but it also marks the commencement of a newer, grander journey. Where you are in five years or even ten will be partially determined by the steps you begin taking, even tonight. When this ceremony ends, your life’s quest begins.

Can I leave you with a simple suggestion? Pursue the things of God. The greatest quest you can ever undertake is to live your life in a way that brings glory to God. Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of heaven.” He knew how easy it is for us to be distracted by our pursuit of other less important things like money, clothes, popularity, or security. But he said that if we are chasing after the things of God, all these other things will be taken care of.

Jesus said in Matthew 5, and in 1 Peter 2, Peter repeated the idea that we are to live unique lives in the world, so that people will see our good lives and change their minds about God. He has placed us here to be His ambassadors to the world. There is no greater quest you can undertake than to be God’s messenger of good news to His creation; and this quest begins with a commitment to spend your life chasing the things of God.

I promise you, this is an unrealistic goal. It is impossible apart from faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. I promise you that you will fail along your way. That’s why we have the promise that if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. But I also promise that there are many who are already engaged in this quest, who will gladly model success for you, and as you go, they will celebrate with you every step of the way. Don’t neglect to invest yourself in partnerships with those who share your values and will assist you rather than weigh you down in your life’s quest.

Tonight, you have succeeded. We are all here to celebrate with you this great accomplishment of graduating from high school. But don’t let this be your life’s greatest achievement. Don’t be content with just this. Let this be the beginning of a far greater quest. The quest to find your true identity as a representative of God to the world around you.