Pacifica Stories

Good afternoon, faculty & staff, families, board of trustees, and most importantly, Pacifica’s graduating class of 2025.

This has been a great week. We celebrated our senior dinner, hosted graduation rehearsal, and spent the night at Disneyland. Seniors you have done an amazing job finishing strong. 

At the rehearsal, I let the Class of 2025 in on the tone for the ceremony today. We start more heartfelt and serious, reflecting on the journey and God’s goodness. This is both a holy moment and a happy one. As we make our way toward the back half of our time together things become more festive and fun. We go from focused to party mode. So let’s travel the road of emotions from reserved to rejoicing, reflection to celebration, from grateful tears to joyful tears. So buckle up, Class of 2025 — it’s time to journey from reverence to revelry.

What a great year! Today, we celebrate a moment you have worked hard for and have been envisioning for a long time—it is now a reality. We pause to let this critical moment sink in and form our journey. We are grateful to God, excited about the future, and sad to close this chapter of our lives.

You made it — and we’re so proud of you.

As much as this is a finish line, it’s also a threshold. A gateway into what’s next — into adulthood, calling, and the lifelong pursuit of truth, beauty, and goodness. And it’s that journey, not just what you’ll do, but who you’ll become, and who you follow, that I want to talk about today.

In a world filled with instability, anxiety, and noise, what does it mean to move forward with hope?

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the 11th Annual Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta, Georgia on August 16th, 1967 gave a speech called, “Where do we go from here?”  In it, he said:

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”

Infinite hope. What is infinite hope?. It’s not wishful thinking. Infinite hope is not limited by circumstances. Finite hope can be lost. Infinite hope lasts forever. It renews itself. It's a hope rooted in reality. One that expects disappointment, yet refuses despair.

It is a hope rooted in Truth, yet pointing to something more. It points to an eternal, personal God with a plan and purpose for our lives. A hope that overcomes. A hope that brings vision and purpose. A hope that fosters courage over fear. 

When culture is racked by anxiety, fear, lack of direction and meaning eternal hope is a valuable resource for a life of abundance. 

Hope doesn’t deny hardship. It defies it.

It looks beyond what’s temporary — a closed door, a hard semester, a setback — and sets its eyes on what is eternal. And that’s what gives it power. Real hope doesn’t just help you deal with hard circumstances — it helps you build a life of vision, meaning, and purpose. It develops courage and boldness. Eternal hope is a gift centered in God.

I love what C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity on the topic of Hope. He said:

“If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were those who thought most of the next.
The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, The English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade — all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven.”

In other words, the best way to be fully present in this world is to live with a vision of the next.

Hope isn’t a retreat from reality — it’s what empowers you to engage it.

That brings me to something Mr. Roberson said just two nights ago at the Senior Dinner—something that bears repeating, and I encourage you to carry with you.

He said we aren’t accountable merely to an idea, but to a person.

That’s profound. Because the person you are becoming — and the person you are responsible to — isn’t just you. It’s your neighbor. Your classmate. Your teacher. Your parent. And ultimately, it’s God. We are beautifully connected.

We don’t view people simply as individuals with preferences and personalities. Others are not to be tolerated but cherished.  Why? Because we see them as what they are: valuable, dignified, immortal image bearers of the living God.

If that’s true — and it is — then your growth, flourishing, and calling aren’t just about independence or dependence. It’s about inter-dependence.

You are responsible to others — your community, ancestors, history, and most importantly, God.

Those responsibilities and connections are not obstacles that weigh you down.

They are not burdens to manage or obligations to resent. They are the greatest of gifts.

They don’t limit your freedom — they free you and are vehicles to help you become your true self, act boldly, and think broadly.

Too often, we think of accountability and connection in negative terms—as rules or constraints. But connection isn’t a cage; accountability and connection actually provide freedom. They are gifts to be opened and used. When we receive a gift, like connection, we don’t leave it or set it aside. We open it, marvel at it, and play with it. Imagine opening your gifts on Christmas morning and then just walking away. Gifts are meant to be incorporated into our lives.

Connection is the way God designed things.

In Genesis, God looked at the first human being alone and said, “It is not good for man to be alone.”

From the very beginning, we were made for relationships.

Class of 2025, build a team around you rooted in love, trust, accountability, and purpose. My college roommates and best friends have been gathering weekly for friendship, encouragement, accountability, laughter, and prayer for 36 years. The connection is intentional and life-changing. We point each other in the right direction. We celebrate together. We pursue infinite eternal hope together. We point to something bigger than ourselves. We are there for graduations, births, funerals, and all the ordinary things in life. We waste time together and live life together. Through connection, accountability, and eternal hope, we are building meaningful lives of purpose and joy handed to us from the past and meant to be passed down to future generations that we are accountable toward.

A recent demographic study in Western Europe found an increasing percentage of Europeans dying alone, without families and friends. They are unconnected and unaccountable.

In 2018, the UK appointed a Minister of Loneliness. In Sweden, 50% of households consist of one person. 

God has given us an antidote to this epidemic of disconnection and loneliness - Himself. In Him, we are never alone. If you look up the word alone in the heavenly dictionary, you won’t find it; it's not there because the concept of loneliness does not exist in heaven.

He has also given us each other. 

The more you embrace inner dependence, the more you flourish. You’ll gain wisdom, insight, support, and perspective—people to fall back on, and walk forward with, people to count on all the time. 

You can do a lot alone. But you can do far more — and go much farther — when you stay connected. 

F1 race car drivers are not solo. They drive alone, but they are tightly connected. They have 30 track-side crew actively involved in their races. Ferrari has 1,200 employees standing behind their drivers. If F1 has a team and can build a community, so can we.

Hope and connection are something to grab hold of and embrace. Make hope and connection your life's work, and the rest will follow. Hope and connection do not come in a “material thing,” an idea, or a dream, but are rooted in a person, the person of Christ.

Staying connected won’t be easy.

We are, by nature, wanderers. Life is busy, change is constant, and the drift toward disconnection is strong. Staying rooted will take intention — a choice to build a consistent network that fuels your soul and reminds you who you are.

Class of 2025, who is your crew? How are you building a network that can give you infinite eternal hope? 

And it starts with your family. You have a head start with the friends in the room.

Let me tell you a story — one of my favorites — about when my daughter Lindsey left for college.

Before she moved out, we sat down to talk about what life would look like now that she was technically “on her own.” We covered the essentials: finances, responsibilities, how often we’d talk.

So I asked her, “How often should we text?”

She looked at me and said, “Maybe… once a month.”

Once a month? I was horrified — inwardly. But I played it cool. “Once a month? Got it,” I said.

Well, the day came. We set up her dorm, ran to Target, grabbed lunch, took a walk around campus, and finally said our goodbyes. We hugged, cried a little, and drove away.

About one minute into the drive, my phone rang. It was Lindsey, barely able to speak through her tears.

“Dad… you can text me whenever you want.”

She knew. She felt it. And so do you.

Class of 2025 — stay connected. Work hard at it. Don’t let the pace of life keep you from the people who have shaped you, who know you, and who will never stop loving you.

So I leave you with this:

• Let your ambition be rooted in calling, not comparison.
   
• Let your confidence be shaped by grace, not perfection.
   
• And let your hope be eternal — because that kind of hope doesn’t run dry. It is fuel for life now and forever.
   

You are leaving this place not just with knowledge — but with purpose. Not just with a diploma — but with a direction.

Wherever you go, go with vision.

Not just a vision for your future, but for eternity and for one another.

Congratulations, Class of 2025. You are ready to flourish in this life and in light of the life to come. 

Know that you are a Pacifican and will always be a Pacifican.

We love you, and we will miss you.

Congratulations, and God bless you as you pursue infinite hope that will change your life.