It was Tuesday night and my deadline was today at noon.

I’d already typed in a zillion-and-one different thoughts over the course of the day, only to go back later and delete them all. I stared a blank computer screen and tried to focus.

No, this wasn’t for a story idea. Or an article for a magazine. Or even a blog post for Faith Lifts.

What held me in the throes of agony was a speech.

In just four short days I would stand before the 2010 graduating class of NCCA and tell them -

Tell them what?

It wasn’t that I didn’t have ideas. Oh no! It was more like I had too many.

How do you stand before a group of excited kids and try to impart a bit of the knowledge and wisdom you’ve gleaned along the way? Can that kind of advice/revelation/sharing really be done in a fifteen minute speech?

I finally decided that I wasn’t going to find the answer that day. So I went to bed.

And, as I do every night before I drift off, I deliberately shut out all the other things in my head and on my heart. I turned them all over to Him and began to relax as the stresses of the day slipped off my shoulders.

My last thought as I went to sleep was that I wished I could share this with the graduates.

The next day I knew what to say.

Life is either simply complex or complexly simple. I like to think it’s the latter.

And so this afternoon I stood behind the podium, looked into the eyes of the graduates, and said this:

“ I would ask of you today that you always listen for One certain voice. As you move forward into your college years, your careers, or your  ministries, you’ll hear a lot of different voices.

Voices that will vie for your time, your energy,  and your loyalty. At the end of the day – as your head touches your pillow and your eyes close in exhaustion – there is only ONE voice that truly matters.

If you can keep the voice of God as your focus in the big middle of everything else you have going on, your life will be a very simple, very happy, very productive one.”

It’s a lesson well learned.

It really is that simple.