Out & About Guest Blog: Graduation Advice in Two Words

_{Today's "Out & About Guest Blog," features Jack Zavada of Inspiration-for-Singles.com. This is your opportunity to hear from someone other than me! Periodically, I will go "out and about" in the online Christian community and invite guest bloggers to share their thoughts and insights about the Christian life with you.}

Graduation Advice in Two Words

Most graduation advice is about as memorable as last Tuesday's breakfast.

Celebrity speakers at graduation ceremonies try to be funny and valedictorians try to be profound, but by the time the photos have been taken, it's hard to remember anything you can use the rest of your life. So here's my graduation advice for you, boiled down to two words:

Afraid? Jesus.

Maybe you think this doesn't apply to you. After all, you're part of the tattoo wearing, extreme sports generation. You live to face fear. You may even have a big sticker in your car window that says, "No Fear."

When you're young, you think you're invincible. Nothing scares you. Fear is something for weaklings and old people. Nike says you can ignore fear altogether and "Just do it."

But that's advertising talk, not the real world. Fear is like the elephant in the room nobody wants to talk about. We're afraid of what other people think of us. We're afraid of failing. We're afraid of not fitting in. Most of all, we're afraid to admit we're afraid in the first place.

That's why I'm asking you to turn to Jesus every time you're afraid. If you get in this habit now, it will make an enormous difference over the course of your life. It has in mine.

Fear is poison, but Jesus Christ is the antidote.

When fear hits, we're tempted to battle it by ourselves or look for a way to escape. Fight or flight response, they call it. The problem is that we're too weak to defeat it by ourselves, and escaping into drugs, alcohol, sex or any other addiction only creates a bigger mess. You can see that from the lives of celebrities.

Instead of listening to our culture's lies about fear, grab a concordance and see what the Bible has to say about it, especially the New Testament. In almost every instance in the gospels, when Jesus tells someone not to be afraid, he offers himself as the reason.

Afraid? Jesus.

Really, those are the only two words I want you to remember from this whole post. Go to Jesus no matter what you're afraid of. Be honest with him. Then give him time. Don't wait a half hour then try something else, or don't assume he's not working because you don't see instant change.

Don't think this isn't for you because you're not afraid right now. Trust me, at some point in your life you'll lose your job or somebody you love will get sick or a relationship you're counting on will start to crumble. These things happen to everybody, with no exceptions, and when they do, life turns scary real fast.

Two words. I promise that in thirty years you'll be glad you remembered them:

Afraid? Jesus.

_{Jack Zavada, a career writer and guest contributor for About.com, is host to a Christian website for singles. Never married, Jack feels that the hard-won lessons he has learned may help other Christian singles make sense of their lives. His articles and ebooks offer great hope and encouragement. To contact him or for more information, visit Jack's Bio Page.}

Also:

• Bible Verses for Graduates
• A Graduation Prayer