In May 2014, Admiral William H. McRaven delivered the commencement address for the University of Texas. His speech centered on ten lessons from SEAL Team training. Each of the lessons were based in helping the listeners to change the world.
It was an outstanding commencement address (you can view it and the transcript here).
Here is how he describes the ten lessons:
… if you will humor this old sailor for just a moment, I have a few suggestions that may help you on your way to a better a world. And while these lessons were learned during my time in the military, I can assure you that it matters not whether you ever served a day in uniform. It matters not your gender, your ethnic or religious background, your orientation or your social status. Our struggles in this world are similar, and the lessons to overcome those struggles and to move forward — changing ourselves and the world around us — will apply equally to all. I have been a Navy SEAL for 36 years. But it all began when I left UT for Basic SEAL training in Coronado, California. Basic SEAL training is six months of long torturous runs in the soft sand, midnight swims in the cold water off San Diego, obstacles courses, unending calisthenics, days without sleep and always being cold, wet and miserable. It is six months of being constantly harrassed by professionally trained warriors who seek to find the weak of mind and body and eliminate them from ever becoming a Navy SEAL.
When I read his remarks I immediately saw a connection between his counterintuitive lessons and important principles for Christians to help them change the world.
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Kevin Huddleston
