The Degree Cover

May 18, 2011 reflectinghisradiance

It is a moment thousands of people spend thousands of dollars and many years anticipating: graduating from college.  The family arrives to show support.  All of your final grades trickle in.  At last, you have finished school.  As the anticipation builds, it seems life will be complete after receiving this degree.

As the deans read from the seemingly endless roster of names, the time draws near when you will at last walk across the stage.  You step up, take your stand in front of thousands for your five seconds of fame, shake hands, and receive your degree.  In what seems a brief and fleeting instant, your moment passes.  The endless roster continues as you walk towards your seat.  Once there, you open the embossed cover to find…emptiness.

Is that it?  I spent four, maybe five or six, years working for that moment?  And the degree cover is empty. 

How often do we chase after ideas, awards, or experiences that the culture thrusts at us?  It seems we cannot achieve completeness as a person, unless we achieve these things.  After sweat, blood, and tears, we finally reach our goal.  Only to realize, it’s empty.  When we achieve our goal, do we experience that ethereal state of satisfaction and fulfillment, or are we left wanting?

This momentous event reminds me of the reality that any time we pursue anything other than Christ, the emptiness inside remains, and the chasm within grows still deeper.  The Psalms express this with the words: “The sorrows of those will increase who run after other gods.”  If these idols of education, physical fitness, relationships, money, careers, etc. leave us empty, where does satisfaction lie?  The Psalmist also addresses this: “You fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”

As I experienced my own college graduation days ago, a recipient of multiple honors, the words of Paul resonate with my spirit.  All of these accolades, achievements, and awards prove worthless compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.  Without Him, I would have no reason to live.  He relegates every honor the world can bestow to its place: in the toilet, with feces.  For compared to knowing Christ, worldly pleasures become as bane as crap.

Does a relationship with Jesus bring glamour?  No.  Jesus promises suffering.  Rejection.  Persecution.  And yet, as we share in these with our Lord, we also participate in His glory.  This glory does not fade, even into eternity.  My degree will burn, along with everything else the world offers.  Besides, the degree cover is empty.  Yet in knowing Christ, we enjoy, even now, a life that never ends.

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