We're Not Who We Were

If I had written a graduation speech, this is what I would want to say to you.

Welcome to Spring Commencement 2014. Welcome to the doorstep of your future.

For some of us, this morning was the beacon of hope in the middle of a long night working on assignments that seemed endless, and for others today is a taunting reminder of the uncertainty of our future. 

I want to begin by saying: congratulations. Whatever emotion you are feeling, let’s rest knowing we’ve reached our goal: we really did it.  We’ve watched our older friends walk this same path before us, and we’ve pondered where it would take us once our name was called. Maybe you are excited for the new opportunities that await you outside the walls of this place we now call home, and maybe you’re terrified that you will never be able to love a place quite as much as this one; and it is very likely the two emotions are swirled into one massive sensation stirring in your chest this morning.

  

And what else could we possibly expect to feel when the time that has molded us so much, comes to an end that is both intriguing, yet uncertain for many of us.  Looking back on the late nights spent studying at McDonald’s, and the mission trips, chapel services, and class discussions that just wouldn’t let us go back to being who we were.

Here, at SBU, we experienced education and academics, but we also lived. We let long nights turn into early mornings, sometimes because we might have put off the assignment too long, and other times, because the conversation kept flowing.  Here we let tears turn into laughter and back into tears again; and found the people that would transition with us effortlessly through both. We had our hearts broken, then molded, filling them with people all along the way. We filled them with friends who became family, to walk alongside us through bad grades, and bad days.  We filled them with some of the most intelligent and caring individuals on the planet, that we got to call professors and advisors.

Here we became whole. We grew up. We received a wonderful and well-rounded education, but we also became different people.  Most likely the guy or girl who walked across this forum as a freshman, sits here as a man or woman completely changed after four years at SBU. This experience will undoubtedly usher us into the rest of our lives.

The question we have to ask is: how?   

Jesus Christ, the Savior and author of our Faith said in Luke 9:23, “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead…Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? “

For some of us, this degree, and this experience is everything we want, but what good would it do to get it, and in the process, lose ourselves? We can find ourselves, by way of self-sacrifice.   

As we walk into the next phase of our life we can boldly step forward and say, “What I do today can leave someone better than I found them.”  We have been taught business models, math equations, how to counsel people, how to fix things, and not only is it possible to use all of those things to the glory of God; it is our calling as Christians.

As we look back on the memories and the knowledge we’ve received it is colored by the people who helped us get where we are, academically, emotionally, and spiritually.  We have to assume that without the people that we met, and the professors we learned from, we wouldn’t be here today. How then can we go from this place, into the world and not want to become that person for someone else?

As we enter this new stage of life, we will encounter all sorts of people, and we must remember that each person has value because they were created in the image of God.

So today, I congratulate you for making it here. For achieving something that at times seemed out of sight and out of reach. It has been a pleasure and a great delight to know you. To whom much is given, much is required.  So in light of that I charge you on this graduation day: to love God, to love others, and to find a way to live your life making each person’s world a little better each day.  After all, I cannot picture a better group of people and ones more adequately equipped than those before whom I stand today.

Thank you.