By Kayla DeKraker
Last week, country singer Eric Church encouraged University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill graduates to focus on faith, family and being true to themselves instead of seeking approval on social media.
“Social media is going to show you 1,000 versions of a life that looks better than yours,” he said in the now-viral commencement speech. “The comparison will be relentless, curated and a lie dressed up in really good lighting. Someone’s comments, someone’s criticism, someone’s cold opinion is going to try to convince you to retune yourself to match what they think you should sound like. Do not let them touch your string.”
He then shared a biblical truth.
“You were made uniquely, wonderfully, distinctly,” Church emphasized. “There’s a sound only you can make, a voice that has never existed before you and will never exist again, a contribution only you can bring, a way of seeing that belongs only to you. The world does not need another cover song. It needs an original.”
This very much alludes to Psalm 139:14, which says, “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.”
He encouraged the graduates to keep their “six strings” in tune: faith, family, marriage, ambition, community and individuality.
“Your faith is the low ‘E’ of your life, the thing that sits at the very bottom of you,” Church continued. “Your belief about what this life is for, what you owe, what holds the universe together when science reaches the edge of its own explanation and shrugs.”
He then emphasized the importance of pursing faith and a relationship with God, not just when times are hard but also when life is going well.
“The people who tend to their faith in ordinary seasons do not come undone in extraordinary ones. They still hurt. They still sit in hospital waiting rooms asking unanswerable questions at 3 in the morning. But they have a foundation to return to,” he said.
Church continued, “The world will try to untune this string through busyness, through slow accumulation of a full schedule, a full inbox, a full life. Listen to me: Tend to your faith, not just when you’re broken, but when you’re whole.”
God doesn’t need us to be perfect; He needs us to rely on Him. He is always faithful to meet us where we are.
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