Jon Acuff - Liberty University Convocation

that's a powerful intro right there whoo I hope you like it hot well it is an honor to be back I mean I'm really excited to be opening up for Tim Tebow I know he's not until the spring that's like five months away but that's close enough that's how I'm gonna say it on Twitter at Jon Acuff opening up for Tim Tebow and Donald Trump opened up for me whoa ballin Yolo ah that is good living right there I tell you it is nice it is great to be back I came here last year and one of the ideas I talked about that I thought we could maybe put to rest last year was Jesus Jukes I don't know if you remember that it was this phrase I came up with to describe that moment when you're having a normal conversation with somebody and they try to juke in some Jesus out of nowhere it happens to me all the time on Twitter I thought when we talked about it maybe you and I could collectively murder that that thing but it hasn't happened I saw it happen with the Hunger Games people would say I'm so excited about seeing the Hunger Games tonight and somebody would respond you know what I'm excited about journaling during my quiet time just saying and that's what a Jesus two kids it's the Christian version of the Debbie Downer moment where and I love that phrase just saying we Christians use that as a get-out-of-jail-free card don't we we say the most horrible things and then we put that phrase at the end like it makes the rest invisible but when you think about it who in the Bible would love that phrase just singing the Pharisees can't you see them saying that to Jesus oh jesus healed somebody that is great healed somebody it is the Sabbath just saying just it's a horrible phrase we should not use it I saw that with Whitney Houston somebody say I'm so sad about Whitney Houston dying and somebody else would say I wish we were this sad about Jesus dying as if maybe Jesus is like yeah take that Whitney this is my day I only talked to that woman at the well so she'd leave my well I'm Jesus I give and take away I give and take away so we need we need to stop doing Jesus - that's one of the phrases that talk about I also talk about worship leaders a lot because deep down I want to be one did you guys have that dude with the acoustic guitar at your summer camp did he go there - because I had this dude that one materialize anytime a campfire was started do you know him and he always pretends like he doesn't know he has his guitar with him oh it's on my back don't worry ladies I know three chords and four crystal moon songs we'll make out and I wanted to be that guy but I'm not cool enough to be a worship leader so I started to write about worship leaders and how in Nashville we went through this metrosexual fret phase where they're wearing skinny jeans like lady jeans Tom's shoes wash Atlanta space shuttle a white belt maybe even an unnecessary scarf which is when you wear a scarf for the short sleeve t-shirt that's a confusing body temperature message it's like your neck is so cold I need a scarf but my arms are too hot for sleeves but what's happened in Nashville is that we've left metro behind we're now in hipster like has that hit here yet hipster mode like the worship leaders that I'm friends with looked like the lost son in Mumford and Sons and I love Mumford & Sons because they're a great band to play girlfriend or God with have you ever listened to their songs and played girlfriend or God you try to imagine is he singing about his girlfriend or God like that song I will wait is he waiting on God because next to journaling that's our second favorite activity as Christians we love to wait or is he waiting on his girlfriend to get ready for a date it's very tricky and so now all these worship leaders they'll have suspenders and and a vest and they'll have a local chicken like they'll have their own chicken coop like a city chicken and you go what is it and they they want to know if the communion wafers are farm-to-table are those gluten-free are those local communion wafers and so hipster became really popular and so I actually came up with what I call the how hipsters your worship leader score it's 94 points that you can score yourself on that's gonna print up one for everybody but there's a lot of everybody's in this travel if you notice that it's it's a full space so we actually created an e-book and we haven't given it away yet but I wanted to give it to you guys today so if you'll pull up that slide so if you want to get the official field guide to how hipster your worship leader is go ahead and take out your phone you can do it right now I won't be insulted I'll get a drink of water I'll stay in here and simple water casually go ahead and text it in you can have the official how hips here's your worship leader god it's delightful it tells you you know is it raw denim is that worth more points do you have to peg your jeans it's very specific it's really and it's a gift put it back out there slow I felt like it was a long drink of water so we'll leave that up for a minute or two but that's the stuff I've continued to write about funny stuff we do in church you know wishing you had a shirt that said I direct deposit my tithe that you'd wear on Sunday mornings so that people wouldn't judge you because I hot potato' that offering basket and it looks like I hate sweet baby Jesus and you can't yell i direct deposit my tithes that's awkward so i started to write about all these awkward things but in the last year i spent a lot of time at college campuses i've been here a few times i've been all over the country talking to college students and i've noticed something that's kind of kind of disturbing and what i've noticed is that when I talked to chaplains they'll tell me they have problems and they'll say whenever we talk about vocation or purpose or calling the students will say things like this I want to serve God I love God I want to serve his kingdom but I love filmmaking and do you see the problem there do you see what's happening in our churches in our colleges we're placing God over here on one side and our passions over here on the other side as if there's only two or three ways to serve God with your skill you can be a worship leader or a minister or a youth minister and it should say I love God I want to serve them and I love filmmaking and so how did we get there how did we separate those two things those two parts of ourselves where we've got our God over here and our passions and our dreams over how did we end up with such a boring God and that's what the fear is that's what the fear when I talk to college students and I'll say well what if you gave God your hopes and your dreams your after college dreams and they'll say everybody knows what happens if you give God your hopes and your dreams the first thing he makes you do is sell there everything you own and move to Guam and become a missionary you go 0-2 Hut in like four seconds and I just can't get down with huts I don't like eating bugs they're crunchy it's not it's not good and so we're afraid and so we hold back our dreams from this guy named God and he's kind of boring and then the world gets in and the world is perfectly okay with you being average the world is okay with you being average and I saw this a few months ago I was in Panama City Beach has anybody ever been there Panama City Beach there's a Walmart there that is kind of like Mad Max is Thunderdome like no rules it's street justice stuff's on fire in the aisles clothings optional very dangerous and I was there and I saw a display in the middle of Walmart that I'd never seen before can you pull that picture up please at the Walmart photo okay so here's what you see there's a thousand ping-pong balls next to a stack of folding tables and what you don't see in the corner is a big display of Red Solo cups huh as a Christian I don't know what they're saying I mean maybe the executives in Arkansas are like wow college students sure do love ping-pong at the beach and after they play they get thirsty for juice or vitamin D enriched milk know what Walmart said is hey if you want a binge drink if you want to play beer pong we want to make that easy for you we want to sell you that experience in one place one stop and I'm not picking on Walmart here's what when Dixie does me show that photo oh look at that reload it sounds like a vitamin I can get the balls and the cups together ahh and then we sit here and ask college students like you why is it hard to be on the straight and narrow cuz you go to buy cheese and they sell you beer pong cups that's why it's hard the world's okay with you being average but God didn't create average did he God didn't create common God didn't create ordinary so what do you do if you kind of wake up to that and go that's not where I'm going that's not going to be my life what do you do if you really want to dream with God and be part of his story well there's two things I think you need to do and that's what I want to talk about today and the first thing you have to do especially in college cuz this is kind of a slingshot moment you get that sense that this is like you're being pulled back and I'm not gonna buy into the whole like these are the best years of your life that's a lot of pressure have you had people tell you that like this is the best years of your life the rest are gonna look like that I mean people will tell you hey go to Europe while you can go while you can like maybe Europe's closed when you're near 30s like you'll go over there they'll be like oh you're 31 you need to go to Branson Missouri have a good time so I'm not gonna put that pressure on college coz that's a lot of pressure and some of you get that some of you every time you see a college brochure everybody's got really nice teeth and they're riding a double bike like they're playing frisbee in the quad or the dog has a bandana on and you go man college is best used you like cameras off board how's it happen is that junior year is that when it gets some so I'm not gonna put that pressure on you but this is an important time and so there's two things I want you to do one I want you to listen for the little moments I want you to listen for the little moments you see most of us when it comes to dreaming we want it to be like a Eureka moment when it comes to figuring out our calling we want to be walking across the street at 42 and boom lightning beekeeping yeah yeah I mean I've always appreciated honey as a concept on toast but now I want to be a beekeeper and like get braids in my beard and blow smoke and bees God has put a love in my heart he has open the eyes of my heart I don't even know what that means it's crazy sounding there's eyes he's put a hedge of protection and it's full of bees we're gonna do life together we're going through a season bees that's what we want we want to Eureka moment and so what happens is we stand up when we have these big discovery conversations and we say what do I want to be when I grow up what do I want to do after college and every option is on the table isn't it should I go to get a masters should I volunteer somewhere should I start my own nonprofit what should i do what should I do and in that moment with that many options most of us don't know where to start we get a little paralyzed so we stopped when we put our dream back on the shelf but what I've learned is that figuring out what you're called to do figuring out what God put in your heart isn't an act of discovery it's an act of recovery of rescuing something from your past that you loved and you lost something that life got too busy for maybe something that someone who mattered to you told you didn't matter and that happens doesn't it a friend of mine named Liz she's in her 40s she told me one day you know when I was in the eighth grade I used to love to dance and one day my mom pulled me inside and said hey you know you're not gonna be a professional dancer right you know that's not in the cards right do you think Liz dance a whole lot after that moment of course not and I get why that happens I'm a parent I've got two adorable kids I know about the Disney Princess cartel I'm down Sleeping Beauty Cinderella Snow White Cinderella runs Disney JZ runs New York I know princesses my keychain is the prettiest princesses like my house key is the three princesses which if you know I have daughters is adorable if you don't know I have daughters I'm a creeper it's true and as a parent here's what you're afraid of here's what your parents are afraid of they're afraid that you won't discover you can't sing until American Idol they don't want you to show up at the extracting go I'm at 42 years of vocal lessons but here's the problem with that when a parent when a professor when a pastor when a friend when anyone tells you what you can't be they're predicting a future they don't control they don't control your future they don't know what you look like at 25 or at 35 or at 45 at 55 they don't but they speak into that we start to believe it don't we some of you right now are in majors that somebody told you you'd be really good at but you've known deep down in your heart that's not why I was called to do and and I meet you and we'll talk at the book table you'll come up to me and say hey my mom always told me I'd be a great lawyer but I'm on the edge of graduating and going to law school I don't want to be a lawyer I don't want to have that conversation with you the worst conversation is where people email me and say hey I'm a dentist I've been a dentist for two years and I hate being a dentist and I knew I didn't want to be a dentist when I was in dental school but there's too much momentum and I didn't want to disappoint anybody so I just kept going and now I've got $200,000 worth of debt and the only way to get out of that debt is to continue doing something I wasn't called to do this is the time in your life where you get to have that hard conversation and get to lean into that and if you'll recognize that dreaming is about recovery not discovery that dreaming is usually a reunion not a first date it changes everything instead of asking the question what do I want to be when I grow up you ask what have I done in my life that I've loved and you get the small personally designed set of results for you I mean I got to be on the radio today and I talked to Andrew and he said I used to work in retail and my dad challenged me about my love of radio so I came back to school at 21 and there's a million other stories if you listen for him and once you realize that that's how God works you can start to see the small things he uses to change whole lives and you can see that all around you if you look I saw that with Mercedes Benz you see Mercedes has this car the SLR it's their $500,000 sports are I don't have one I'm right now someday but they had a problem with it and see their problem was they wanted every inch to be amazing but they couldn't get the ignition to work because if you think about it for the last 80 or 90 years ignitions have stayed the same haven't that I mean every other part of the car has changed safety onboard computers mpg like child safety restraints when I was a kid and my dad is here he'll tell you he's here today joining us but when I was a kid my parents would tie me into the backseat of their Volkswagen Beetle Bug with a length of rope and they'd say hey think safe thoughts today we're gonna be on the highway think safe my kids have like a nineteen point safety harness you need to be a Cirque de Soleil Acrobat to get into they have like eyebrow airbags against they're very safe during like a bubble of love and plastic but the ignition hasn't changed has it you take your keys you put it in you turn and you go but about ten years ago manufacturers started changing things they started doing push-button ignition and that's interesting that's different but Mercedes Benz couldn't copy that because other people already had that the Accord had that the camry had that so the first thing they did was they put their button in the gear stick and that's interesting that's a little different but it wasn't enough it was the next thing they did that changed everything do you know what they did they took a tiny metal hinge and a metal cover and they put it on top on the button do you know what they did to that experience it changed it from turning on a car into launching a missile think about it every movie you've ever seen when the hero is up against impossible odds what's the first thing they do flip open that safety save the world haunt for October Crimson Tide Top Gun probably even battleship I know I'm not gonna watch a movie based on a board game I'm waiting for Kinect for the movie who will rain red or black I hope to get Rihanna I hope they get Rihanna oh she's the greatest but that's what our heroes do right so suddenly with a tiny hinge I'm not turning on a car I'm launching a missile from my driveway and there's power and emotion associated with that isn't there and I knew Mercedes understood what they had done when I saw their brochure on one page was a picture of the engine probably costs 10 million dollars 10 years to develop on the other page a close-up of the hinge probably cost 30 seconds three minutes three dollars to develop so why did it get the same amount of attention because that's where the car changed that hinge changed everything so when I talked to students I begged them don't get stuck looking for Eureka moments listen for those hinge moments those tiny moments where you think you know what life's going to be about you think you know what this semester is going to be in God hinges you in a completely different space you think you know what the next year is going to look like and then a conversation with a stranger on campus a song lyric goes oh and hinges you and if you listen and if you look you'll see hinge moments everywhere I experienced one a few years ago my daughter Ellie and I were on the couch in Atlanta when we lived there looking at a book about whether she'd love to be a meteorologist even though she says hurricane as hurricane it's kind of this combo of like a hernia in a hurricane like it's a bad storm you don't want any part of a hurricane oh and on one of the pages in this book about weather was a story about famine and drought and there was a picture of a starving African child there she said what's that dad what's that and it's one of those moments where you'd like to kind of have your wife answer that one like your mom would love to talk to you about that but she wasn't there and so I said well a little boy is starving to death he doesn't have enough food to eat and then Ellie got kind of quiet and she said but that that's pretend right that's not real right because you see a five-year-old can't understand poverty five girls don't understand it happens teenagers we learn it does and then as an adult you usually get numb to it but she was still young and so when she said that's pretend right that's not real right I heard her saying you're not okay with that are you do other people know about that are you doing anything and the truth is I wasn't at the time I had this blog stuff Christians like and it was just about me I was really consumed with kind of my brand and my fame I think fame is the worst drug in Christianity right now it is wrecking churches and young leaders it is so toxic but that's where I was and so I decided to do something different so I partnered with this organization and a random Monday I asked the readers of my blog to raise $30,000 to build a kindergarten in Vietnam and that's a lot of money that's why pastors it's hard to ask for money pastors do the tithing disclaimer have you ever experienced that where you go to church then go I never talk about money except today enesta day you finally got your roommate to come to church for the first time so you lean over and do your own disclaim like give me one more Sunday he doesn't always talk about we don't have mimes every Sunday like that's the Sunday gloves of love come I mean you can make fun of mimes they can't yell at you it's okay that's a free speaking tip but it's awkward asked for money it changes your relationship and so we thought it would take us eight weeks to raise the amount of money $30,000 do you know how long it took us 18 hours 18 hours we raised the entire amount if you didn't read the blog that day you missed it and so we realized we had under sized God have you ever done that to God have you ever gone god you're huge your massive you're the creator of space and time you're just not as big as my parents divorce you're smaller than that god you're gigantic you're so creative when people say you're boring I said look at the platypus or the narwhal oh the unicorn of the sea if we know if we take it for granted God's gonna take it back like the Unicorn I'm just throwing that out there that's a warning guys gotta give Norway they're here god you're just not as big as my major or my job after college and so we realized we had done that so we doubled down and raised another $30,000 and last November my wife and I got to go see these kindergartens can you pull up that photo and here's a picture from one of the kindergartens and that moment right there started with a question from a five-year-old on a couch do you think I had any idea it would lead there of course not but what a wild card God we serve we're little things like that can lead to changing the world that's the God you have so don't get so busy and so distracted that you missed these quiet things he's trying to tell you I mean David was at the Goliath situation because he brought lunch he didn't ride up on a chariot he did an errand and so often in our lives we don't want to do the small things but so often the small thing is where God's trying to move your life in a big direction the second thing you need to do if you're going to dream with God especially in college is you need to ignore the haters you ignore the haters and I didn't think I'd ever have haters like I kind of just thought everybody would love me forever the end like that's kind of how my mom told me things would be it's not been the case it has not been my experience and here's something I learned haters only get loud when you do things that matter haters only get loud when you do things that matter if you want to kind of be average if you want to rock vanilla right into the grave hate will give you a free pass hey hate won't bother you you know who never gets rocks thrown at them people who don't stand up but if you stand up the second you do that other people in your life are going to throw some rocks and the problem is that most of us experience compliments and hate very different when somebody gives you a compliment especially as a Christian the first thing you do is try to shop block it somebody says hey I really liked that project you did you go oh that was nothing it was a team effort no no no just something I do on the side and you block it you can't let it land on you for a second but when somebody criticizes you when somebody hates on you what do you do you focus on it you laser in you go this person gets me they understand you start to believe what I call critics math and critics math is really simple here's the formula one insult plus 1000 complements equals one insult in the face of one insult plus 1000 complements you'll focus on the one insult and I started to see this everywhere I started to see this in churches there's a lot of you that are gonna be pastors or youth ministers and I can go to churches right now and go hey who here loves what God's doing who are the people in the church that love this ministry in the past we're glad there's a handful of people that kind of like what I'm doing they'll say hey who doesn't like the ministry who are the parents trying to get to youth minister fired and the pastor can describe me what they look like the last letter they wrote how thick their moustaches they know those people intimately I'm the same way on Amazon right now I have I think three one-star reviews in my book quitter this book right here is three one-star reviews and has about 175 five-star reviews can you guess which ones I have memorized it's not the five-star it's the one-star I wouldn't even give this book as a gift somebody would waste their time said LeeAnn hypothetically I mean that's just no LeeAnn but that's what we do isn't it and even famous people struggle with that there's this guy Larry David co-creator of Seinfeld most successful sitcom in the history of television also has a show on right now called Curb Your Enthusiasm it's on HBO so don't clap we're not supposed to know that exists don't say Game of Thrones either a winter is coming don't do any of those things don't make fly to the Conchords I know all the rules I know all the rules and so Larry David is from New York but he lives in LA so he had a home coming in and went back to New York for a week and while he was there he went to a Yankees game and during the middle of the game haha man I don't think he'll got that loud of a boo like people are like hell yeah uh but so he goes to a game at a stadium where people play sports I won't say which one and they're in the middle of the game they find out he's there they put his picture up on the big screen they play the theme song to Curb Your Enthusiasm and fifty thousand people cheer for Larry David he imagine what that moment must I felt like I mean I grew up in Boston I used to have a friend who had I had a friend who had season tickets to the Celtics and they are 5 rows off the floor I'm gonna stop naming cities and or sports teams this speech is about to become really general I saw the Sun anybody the Sun weather yeah salts Wow and so you had to go through the players tunnel to get to his seats and for the brief as a second when he'd walk out of that tunnel you felt like everything was there for you I'd do it 10 times a game I'd walk out and I'd walk back and shake it off I have issues that I need to unpack with a counselor probably a father wound it's not a father wound dad you hugged me lots but that wasn't for me this moment was for Larry David and so at the end of the game when the night was over he walked to his car and somebody drove up next to him in the parking lot and they rolled their window down and said hey Larry you suck and then they drove away can you guess who he thought about and talked about to the reporter for the rest of the night do you know who he talked about the guy who had yelled at him critics math made 50,000 people disappear critics math made a stadium invisible I mean David Copperfield can't do that kind of trick David Blaine can't pull it off Criss Angel can't do that that's my Criss Angel shimmy it's in the hips cuz the hips don't lie there's like a pop-culture smorgasbord but that's what happens to us and it's going to happen to you in college or out of college some of you that's already happened to you have you had somebody who matters to you say how would you ever make money with that major how is that career ever going to be valuable it's time to be an adult how will you ever make money with that and so our dreams get smaller we believe the critic and we believe that other people know the best shape of our lives and so when that happens to you there's two things I want you to do because you're going to experience hate you're going to experience criticism the first is I want you to do what Southwest Airlines does I love Southwest Airlines if you guys ever flown on Southwest it's great Southwest is kind of like it's fun to me one of the things when I travel like have you ever sat next to a Christian who you know is about to witness to you like he's gonna try to double convert you and we don't have any way to be like I'm already in like talk to the guy next year reading Fifty Shades of Grey it's awkward talking and signal like King or something I wish I had seen her do 50 shades of gray it would have been great but that's what happens on planes and on Southwest they're very good to their customers but in the 1990s they had one customer who had send hundreds of complaint letters she sent so many they called her pin pal that was her nickname and one day they got one that they couldn't figure out how to respond to so it made it all the way up to the founder of the company Herb Kelleher and he took out his stationery and he wrote something down he wrote four words to this person do you know what he said he wrote we will miss you we'll miss you bounce we are setting you free to fly on other airlines in joy and joy Delta they have those little cookies that delicious go on what if that's how you handled hate why do you have to win over the haters why do you have to prove your dream your major your career the people that don't love you and love what you're doing so the first thing I want you to be able to do is go we'll miss you and then and don't act like Jesus didn't do that asked if a rich young ruler how things went that day when he said to Jesus I'm down except I want to keep all my stuff how did that go for him that's the first thing I what you do is we'll miss you the second thing is do the math the right way for me three people that hate my book out of all the people that bought it represent zero point zero zero eight percent so for me to obsess on that would be like if my daughter Ellie came home with a ninety nine point nine nine to on a math test and I said whew I thought we were ready for this one buddy I mean man I guess you can work at Sheetz later like you can pump gas I know that Lynchburg has Chipotle now that's nice I went there yesterday they gave me guac it was fantastic we even got a cookout here now we're coming up like The Jeffersons you'd never do that if you called your parents and said mom on my finals next week if you call me though I got a ninety nine point nine ninety two and your mom said why are we sending you there have you been at the fake ski mountain this whole time is that what it is rug burn hmm your mom would never say that you have the worst parents in the world so if you experience criticism I want you to do the math the right way because what happens is most of us give the people in our life that don't deserve the power we give the 0.008 percent of the people in our life all the power for our life and you've been to a church where it's like that where one elder poisons the whole experience you've been in a dorm room like that our dorm room floor where one person on the floor changes the whole vibe it's time for us to not let the 0.008 percent of the people rule our life hating is not a spiritual gift like hating on other Christians not a spiritual gift you know what no one's ever said in the history of mankind hey that way you mocked other Christians really started a lifelong relationship for Jesus with me thank you thank you for using the gift of mockery to lead me towards Jesus oh we got a full front hug not even a side hug like maybe even a leg wrap it's just awkward it's just people don't like when you do that don't don't hug that way that's what I want you to do I want you to reverse the math and so if you start to think about that if you go okay I'm gonna listen for the little moments I'm not gonna believe this college is the only time you can figure out your dream idea I'm gonna ignore the haters what do you need to do next well what you need to do next is you need to get started you need to start now I'll talk to students and they'll go I can't wait to hustle after I graduate no no no no this is the time to get a head start and if you don't start life will just kind of go by nobody has ever said life is too slow and I bumped into this on a plane I was flying from Dallas to Baltimore and there was two grandmother's in their late he's next to me grandmothers whoo maybe you're cheering for Dallas I'm so confused right now and this grandmother sitting next to me and I gave her a copy of quitter and I don't do that on every flight I promise I don't wear cargo pants full of my books I'm like huh what's it my Pug Wall Street Journal bestseller I'll sign it the value goes up no pictures please it drives my pores but I gave her a copy of my book and she started to read it on the plane which is awkward because as an author you can't help but look out of the corner and be like is it changing her life right now does I mean quitters life-changing stuff Christians like this book you know what people say to me about this book they come up to me and go I love your book I keep it in my bathroom it's calm it's kind of a compliment it's it's a smidge of a compliment but so I looked at her out of the corner of my eye and I was like come on please get highlighters multiple colored highlighters post-it notes and after reading for a while she leaned over to me and she asked me a question I didn't have an answer for and here's what she said she said hey what do you do when all the excuses you use for not chasing your dream are gone what do you do when you don't have those anyway more when you're not too busy when you don't have too many obligations what do you do and there was sadness in that question because for the first time in her life she was asking who did God make me to be and that's my fear that you and I will get to 80 or 90 and look back on our lives and realize we mortgaged the best years of our lives seventy years of our lives doing something we weren't called to do something God didn't create us to do and don't for a second think he doesn't create you for unique things I mean that's the big myth remember Paul who was formerly Saul so Saul was a hard driven aggressive charismatic guy against Jesus he meets Christ on the road to Damascus and he became a quiet isolated monk who wrote hymns in caves no he became a hard driven focused charismatic person for Christ God doesn't want to turn off those passengers you've got those things you bump into in college he wants to turn them on in ways they've never been on that's the God we serve what a wild card god I said that last time I was here he fix his problems with parties that's the prodigal son story who does that have you ever had a parent do that I like to joke about with my dad I mentioned last time I got caught shoplifting in the ninth grade which was awesome for the pastor's kid to do pastors kids are only less dangerous than cops kids because we don't have access to firearms I see y'all it's the only difference like I didn't have pistols because I promised I wouldn't got in trouble but I always joke with my dad that when they called him from the police station said could you come get your son and they picked me up I don't remember exactly but I'm almost positive my dad didn't throw me a party when I got home like dad correct me my wrong I didn't get a robe or like a fatted calf like it what that was a very different day who does that who fixes our lives with parties and that's what I don't want you to miss I don't want you to leave college never daring to dream with God I don't want you to leave college with a degree that's just good enough to make you money because that gets empty really really quickly I don't want you to spend 10 years in a cubicle like I did and so that's my hope is that you listen for those little moments that you'll ignore the haters cuz they're going to come and that's you'll start just get started the only line you and I control is a starting line we have no control over the finish line God is going to move your stories in amazing ways that we don't have control over and that's my hope is that we'll be part of his adventure his story his work let's pray God thank you for such a fun fun day we get to talk about you and who you are and who you made us to be may we forever remember that we will never out dream you even right now that small spark and some of our hearts doubt and fear are coming in and saying who are you to do that just finish your degree finish the path you've been walking God give us the courage to not do that to not accept average to not accept ordinary to not chase somebody else's dream if there are students in here who inherited their major from a parent or a guidance counselor or a pastor help us release that help us give that back to you God even if it feels cloudy even if it feels murky lord help us not assume that you want us to just do the safe thing that you want us to just do the average thing you didn't send your son on a rescue mission cuz that's what Christ was a rescue mission to save the ordinary you sent him for the extraordinary amen thanks guys

Channel: Liberty University

Views: 17,580

Rating: 4.8378377 out of 5

Keywords: liberty university, convocation, convo, jon acuff, liberty, university, college, school, bible, community, christian, stuff christians like

Id: jKPWWieEQPU

Length: 36min 39sec (2199 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 04 2012