The Last Lecture . . . Ron DeBoer 4/17/2014 Perhaps you have read the book or viewed the YouTube video of Randy Pauschs last lecture, an hour-long talk he gave at Carnegie Mellon University several years ago. Carnegie Mellon has long held a tradition wherein an outgoing professor would give his or her “last lecture” to an audience and share what pearls of wisdom he or she had gained. For professor Randy Pausch, his last university lecture truly was his last lecture. He was dying of pancreatic cancer. I was thinking of Pausch’s last lecture as I was preparing both the eulogy for my brother’s funeral this week as well as this article, my last new piece for NewLivingTranslation. What words would I leave with my audience of ten years? The answer came by way of a leather notebook that my niece gave my brother. She had written down all of my brother’s favorite Bible verses and passages, carefully copying them out by hand and presenting them to him in his hospital room several weeks before he died. My brother loved that notebook and wrote exclamation marks and happy faces in the margins beside the passages. He underlined certain words and phrases several times and, on his final night on this earth in early March, left the book open to a particular passage he had been reading over and over again as he prepared to meet his Lord and Savior. That passage became the topic of the message by the pastor conducting my brother’s funeral, and I thought it would make a wonderful “last lecture” today. The words are Paul’s to the people of Philippi and come from Philippians 4:4-9: Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon. Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you. I thank you for your loyal readership of my articles these past ten years. My prayer is that you were blessed by them and that you have been a blessing to others through them. God bless.
Posted on: Mon, 21 Apr 2014 18:39:05 +0000
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