Be Careful What You Swallow

The graduation ceremony for The River Academy took place last Saturday afternoon. And for me, it was a bittersweet ninety minutes. Sweet, because it called to mind many of the reasons that I admire and appreciate Travis Koch, Scott Welch and Chad Warren. Bitter, as I pondered what life and ministry in the Wenatchee Valley will be like without them.

Travis was asked by the graduating class to give them one final address and I am pleased to share it with you here. Enjoy.

"Nearly 40 years ago, Theodor Seuss Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, was asked by a friend to deliver the graduation speech at Lake Forest College in Lake Forest, Illinois.  Geisel was the famous author of numerous best-selling children’s books, but he hated speaking in front of large audiences, so he flatly refused the request.  He did agree, however, to attend the ceremony and receive an honorary degree from the college – Doctor of Humane Letters.

The president of the college presented the degree, and, still hoping Geisel would say a few words to the graduates, shook his hand and gestured for him to take the microphone.  Geisel moved to the podium, fished a small piece of paper out of his robe, and read the following poem, which, according to one source, he had written on the drive to campus that morning.  Here it is.

It’s titled, “My Uncle Terwilliger on the Art of Eating Popovers.”

My uncle ordered popovers

from the restaurant’s bill of fare.

And, when they were served,

he regarded them with

a penetrating stare…

Then he spoke great Words of Wisdom

as he sat there on that chair:

“To eat these things,”

said my uncle,

“you must exercise great care.

You may swallow down what’s solid…

BUT…

you must spit out the air!”

And…

as you partake of the world’s bill of fare,

that’s darned good advice to follow.

Do a lot of spitting out the hot air.

And be careful what you swallow.

You guys probably began your education reading Dr. Seuss books, so this is a nice inclusio, which makes Mr. Warren very, very happy.

After he finished reading his poem, Geisel sat down without commenting on his Uncle Terwilliger’s advice.  This afternoon, however, in the spirit of our many discussions over the past several years, I’d like to offer a few reflections on the poem we’ve just read.  Specifically, I want us to think about Geisel’s words of wisdom: “You may swallow down what’s solid, but you must spit out the air.”

I’ve organized these reflections under three headings: the situation, the problem, and the solution.

First, the situation.  It goes without saying that in this life you will encounter many different ideas about the world, about the human condition, about your place on this earth, and what you should and shouldn’t be doing here. 

You heard a few of these ideas expressed in your conversations with university students last week, and you’ve encountered many others in the books we’ve read, in the conversations we’ve had in class, and in many other conversations, both in and out of school.

This life, it turns out, is a lot like a food-court at the mall.  And you, as the hungry customer, are being called to come, choose, order, pay, and eat.  The different vendors are mingling with the crowd, shoving samples in your face, trying to get you to buy their food.  They offer competing ideas—claims, explanations, interpretations—of what’s wrong with the world, and what, if anything, will fix it.

As you make your way through life you’ll be invited, you’re already being invited, to champion this cause, or fight against that problem, or, increasingly, to remain neutral about everything and just get along.  Different people in your life are expecting you to think, and feel, and act in certain ways that they believe are right and good.  And it’s left to you to evaluate those expectations, and either swallow them down, or spit them out.

That’s the situation we find ourselves in, and there’s no escaping it.

Second, the problem.  Not everything that lands on your plate is worth eating.  It should go without saying, at least it used to be generally accepted, that in the buffet of ideas, all are not equal.  Some of what is offered is solid food, and some is nothing but hot air.  Some dishes are nourishing and healthy, and others are laced with poison.

And you, my friends, have to be able to tell the difference.  You must eat, and so you must choose what you’re going to swallow.  And the consequences of confusion can be disastrous, not only for you, but also for those who depend on you to lead them as they think, and feel, and act.

I don’t know whether Geisel was a Christian when he delivered his poem, but his advice echoes biblical truth.

In the book of Hebrews, chapter 5, we read the following statement: “But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.”

Here God reveals something about the mature person, the full grown, healthy person.  The first and most conspicuous quality of maturity is discernment: the ability to distinguish between good and evil, between truth and error, between what is beautiful and what is ugly. 

The mature person looks past the surface to the heart of the matter, to the foundational claim, to the presuppositions that support the underlying claim.  The mature person recognizes things for what they are, and calls them what they are.  Good is recognized as good and called good.  Evil is recognized as evil and exposed as evil.

The Apostle Paul commands this approach to life in 1 Thess 5:21, “Examine everything carefully.  Hold fast what is good, reject every kind of evil.”  And in Ephesians 5:11, “Having nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.”

Obviously Paul assumes that clear distinctions between good and evil are possible and necessary, but he goes further by admonishing us not only to recognize the difference, but to hold fast to what is good.  Or, following Geisel’s analogy, swallow it down.

On the other hand, God warns us to reject the hot air.  In Eph 5:6 Paul writes, “Let no one deceive you with empty words.”  Colossians 2:8 says, “See to it that no one takes you captive through empty deceit.”  Titus 1 teaches us to avoid empty talkers and deceivers.  And Eph 4:14 admonishes us not to be carried away by the winds of false doctrine.

Empty words, empty talk, empty doctrines.  Hot air.

“Examine everything carefully.  Hold fast what is good, and reject every kind of evil.”

And so my charge to you as you go from this place is, be picky eaters.  That’s right, ignore what your parents taught you about eating when you were little, and be picky eaters.

Be careful what you let in.  Don’t eat everything that anyone puts on your plate.  Be discerning.  Swallow down what’s good and true, but be sure to spit out the hot air – the empty words, empty doctrines, empty deceit.

Be picky eaters.

I chose to read you Geisel’s poem today because it captures something that’s at the very heart of education, something that’s foundational to the education your teachers have tried to give you over the years, something that you must possess, not only to be a mature person, but also to be a healthy human being.

This essential component of education is the ability to make distinctions.

The German Catholic philosopher Robert Spaemann put it well when he said, “To educate is to train a person to make distinctions, whether it be the distinction between a blackbird and a robin, between a brook and a canal, between a Mercedes and a Volkswagen, or, on the other hand, between the important and the trivial, between the beautiful and the ugly, and between good and evil.  We learn to distinguish between these things by growing out of crude judgments, such as “I like this,” or “I don’t like that,” and by fashioning in ourselves the ability to perceive objective qualities.  The distinction between good and evil, for example, is something we acquire only by learning to take one side and to be against another—and perhaps in certain circumstances even against ourselves.  We acquire this ability by learning that the world is a battlefield between good and evil, and that this battle is raging even in our own hearts.”

In other words, if our goal is to swallow solid food and spit out the hot air, we must first be able to distinguish between the two.  Your schooling was designed to train you to do just that. 

You’ve been taught to weigh and measure, to recognize the difference between one word and another, between an adjective and an adverb, between a claim and the evidence that supports it.  You’ve been given the tools to distinguish between quantities and qualities, to understand the differences between various functions, processes, systems, and ideas.  All so that you can embrace what is true and good and beautiful, and reject what is false and evil and ugly.

Think of your education here as one long lesson in culinary pickiness.  We pile food on your plate, and then together we examine it to determine what is worthwhile and what is worthless.  And together we swallow what is good and we spit out what is empty.

Over the years we’ve eaten a lot together.  We’ve fed on the epics of Homer and Virgil.  We’ve bitten off Bullfinch, gobbled up Gilgamesh, and devoured Dante.  We’ve polished off Plutarch, assimilated Aristotle, tasted Tolkien, snacked on Shakespeare, digested Dickens, absorbed Austen, supped on Steinbeck, and munched Melville.

And through it all we’ve feasted on God’s words, the Holy Scriptures, which is solid food through and through.

Now that you’re leaving this place, you may be wondering how you’re going to carry on the hard work of distilling out the solid food from the swirling winds of hot air.  In fact, you’re probably thinking that this world is less like a food-court, and more like a giant food fight!  And with so many ideas and perspectives and interpretation flying around, how can we possibly distinguish between the right ones and the wrong ones?

Which brings us to our third reflection: the solution.

In order to tell if something’s off, you have to have some idea of what “on” looks like.  In order to know that a meal is nutritious, you have to have some idea of how the body works and what it needs.  Or, to use another metaphor, you have to have an idea of a plumb wall before you can tell if your wall is leaning. 

So, what do we have for plumb lines?

Let me remind you of the three plumb lines that you’ve been trained to use during your time here.  In order to avoid swallowing hot air, we must measure every idea against these three infallible standards: the Word of God, the character of God, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

First, is it consistent with God’s Word?  Let’s go back to Hebrews 5: “But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.”  In the previous verse, the author of Hebrews identifies this solid food as the word of righteousness, which comes from the mouth of God.  God promises to feed us.  He declares that he has given us everything for life and godliness, and the riches he supplies for us begin with his Word, the Bible, illuminated by the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts.  God’s words are living and active, sharper than a two-edged sword, able to divide soul and spirit, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  God defines what is good; he provides the only authoritative moral and intellectual plumb line, and he gives us his Spirit to lead us into all truth. 

Simply put, it is impossible for us to be discerning without first comparing everything to the standard of Scripture.  The very first question you ask of every idea should be, is it consistent with Gods’ revealed truth.  To the extent that it’s consistent, you can safely swallow it down.  If it’s out of alignment with God’s Word, it’s hot air.

Second, is it consistent with God’s character?  God is personal, three-in-one, holy, pure, wise, just, good, loving, gracious, and true.  Good things are those that reflect God’s good purposes in creation and redemption, and truth is that which corresponds to God’s knowledge of reality, and beauty is that which draws us to God, who is supremely beautiful.  God created us to know and enjoy him, and anything that contradicts who God is can never satisfy.  Therefore, “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent of praiseworthy, think about these things.” Any idea that’s consistent with God’s character can be safely swallowed down.  If it contradicts God’s character, it’s hot air.

Third, is it consistent with the Gospel of Jesus Christ?  Christ’s life, death, and resurrection change everything.  In the gospel we find both the human problem and the solution.  In the gospel Jesus Christ gives his life for the life of the world, and you and I as his disciples are called to do likewise.  In the gospel you learn that you are more needy than you ever dared to believe.  But you also hear the glorious good news that in Christ, you are more loved and accepted than you ever dared to imagine.  Nothing can be rightly understood apart from Christ and his redeeming work, apart from Christ and his Kingly rule over all things.  Every thought must be taken captive to the obedience of Christ.  The only ideas that can be safely swallowed down are those that are consistent with the gospel.  If it tries to add or take away from the gospel, it’s hot air.

Through all we’ve read and done together, you’ve been learning how to swallow carefully.  You’ve been learning to identify hot air and spit it out.  You’ve been invited to feast on truth, goodness, and beauty.  You’ve been trained to be picky eaters.  And now we send you out as educated people, who know how to identify what’s solid and hold it tightly.

I said the other day that if I could only bring one non-biblical book into the apocalypse, it would be John Bunyan’s allegory of the Christian life, Pilgrim’s Progress.  In the middle of that story, when Christian and Faithful enter Vanity Fair, they are mocked for not purchasing any of the empty ideas in the marketplace.  “What will ye buy?” asks one of the vendors.  But they, looking gravely upon him, said, “We buy the truth.”

Go now, out into the food-court.  Buy the truth and swallow it down so that it becomes part of you.  Remember to be picky eaters.  Examine everything carefully.  Hold fast to what is good; and do a lot of spitting out the hot air."

Thanks, Travis!