It’s that time of year where high schools and colleges celebrate the graduating classes. I told my son-in-law that I thought it must be an amazing honor to be invited to come speak to a College or University’s graduation ceremony. It really must be. Some of you might remember when Harrison Butker addressed the graduating class at Benedictine. A Catholic school. His remarks were pointed and direct. I admire him for being willing to do so. I wish more people would stand by their convictions. I wish more people would listen to what God is telling them to do. And just like it seems to happen when someone takes a stand today, people on both sides of the aisle, picked up their torches and ran with them. Especially on Facebook. I have said many times, people feel safe behind computer screens. So much so, that they will type things that they would never say to someone face-to-face. For this devotion, I’m going to quote two important points that were made in regards to Harrison’s speech.
“Be unapologetic in your masculinity, fighting against the cultural emasculation of men. Do hard things. Never settle for what is easy. You might have a talent that you don’t necessarily enjoy, but if it glorifies God, maybe you should lean into that over something that you might think suits you better.” This was one of the points that Harrison made to the men that were in attendance. Great advice. We definitely live in a time where the emasculation of men is taking place. Something that we should be fighting tooth and nail. But I believe we should be fighting it with God in control. Letting him show us how to be men of God. Plain and simple. Using our talents to glorify him.
Tavia Hunt, the wife of Chiefs’ owner Clark Hunt, responded to all the backlash to the speech made by Harrison Butker. The part I want to bring to your attention goes hand-in-hand with what I was saying earlier about both sides of the aisle. I made a comment to a post about the whole thing. I was trying to show how he was praising women for their accomplishments with graduating college. Maybe I should’ve stayed out of the whole thing. But I didn’t. And then I was called a scared Republican. Some thing I can easily shrug off. But Harrison has been called a bigot. He’s been called a white supremacist. And I’m sure he has been called other things. Tavia said this: “I also caution against taking things out of context. Sound bites overlaid with hateful comments are not what we want to model for our children or others. We need more dialogue (and VALUES, IMO) in this country and less hate.” So today, let’s stop all of the backbiting. Finger-pointing. Disparaging each other. Let’s agree to disagree if we need to. Nothing wrong with that. Let’s work to glorify God in both our actions and in our words.
