Yet, even as I write this speech it is evident that change is in the air. Os Guinness warns us that at some point Americans will become fed up with the excesses and dysfunctional aspects of our culture. He says that as American mainline culture fails to sustain Americans in their hedonistic pursuit of self interest, they will want something more. William Bennett is right to warn us that there is a “death of outrage†in our country but he might add that there is a numbness spreading across the land that offers much opportunity for Christians in general and for homeschoolers in particular.
Guinness encourages Christians with the fact that Americans in the near future will be looking to places of stability and strength for direction. Besides, almost by default, those people whose lives are in reasonable good shape, who have some reason to live beyond the next paycheck will have almost an inexorably appeal. Like Aeneas in Virgil’s Aeneid we will all someday after the storm thrown on somebody’s beach.
How do we as parents and now as new graduates create a foundation for personal success? There are four key issues that must be settled in your mind: identity: Who am I?, responsibility: What will I do with my life?, priority: what is really most important to me? , and commitment: How much am I willing to commit? Using Hebrews 11:23-27 let’s look at these four issues.
First, as you begin a new phase of your life make sure you know who you are and who your God is. “By faith, Moses, when he had grown up refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter’s.†(V. 24). He refuses and then chooses.
Second, Moses accepts responsibility for his life. “He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.†(Vs. 25). You will be persecuted because you will join the stream of faith that believes Christ is the Way, the Truth, the Life.
Thirdly, You will need to decide fairly soon what is important and valuable in your life or others will do it for you. You need a cause worth dying for (as well as living for). And I don’t mean late library books. Does your mom really take off on library books? “He [Moses] regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.†(V. 26).
Finally, you must never take your eyes off the goal. “By faith, he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw Him who is invisible.†How long can you wait? How long can you persevere? The story of Jeremiah buying the field at Anatoth.