Graduation speeches are naturally designed to be in- spiring, motivational, upbeat. We really can be salt and light and leaven; we can be in the world and not of it; we can make a difference. In the power of the Holy Spirit, we really can be transformed into agents of God’s coming Kingdom. But it may or may not entail big time passion, and super-radical lifestyles. More likely, you’ll just put one foot ahead of the other, day by day by day, soli deo gloria.
It takes time to get your bearings, to find your sweet spot. And that is my point in these introductory remarks. We hope these talks encourage you, inspire you, remind you of some key themes you most likely have heard over the years of your college career. This is an exciting time in your life, even if bittersweet. But don’t feel badly if you don’t see yourself as a “change agent” and “radical Christian” who “makes a difference” right away. We all have to lean into these things, be patient with ourselves, and learn more about the spiritual practices that will sustain us over the long haul. You’ve gotten through college. The silly little slogan on plaques and posters and cards really is true–today actually is the first day of the rest of your life. I think these meditations and reflections will keep you moving forward. Live well, do good, be true.
So, I’ve danced around two themes that might help frame or inform your reading of these graduation messages. Let me be clear: first, you don’t have to “go far” or really “make something of yourself.” You may be called to less dramatic, more mundane faithfulness, serving God and nurturing your faith in pedestrian ways in places that don’t look like a TV show. Not all of us can be social entrepreneurs who start new charities or websites or programs or protests. Starting up a start-up isn’t for everyone. Changing the world may even be, as Eugene Cho put it in a book by this title, overrated. It’s okay to be ordinary.
Secondly, we have to be patient as we step into our lives’ vocations. We may know we are called to be part of God’s redemptive mission and that that is the story that shapes our lives. But, like everyone else, we have to learn the skills and craft and practices of our professions. We have to, as the saying goes, earn the right to be heard. We have to be life- long learners, deepening our insight and fidelity to our callings, our jobs, our places and relationships. Whether we are called to the high-power corporate world in a cool urbane setting or a less prestigious job in a small town, we have to do the work, learning day by day. These speeches will be good reminders of the bigger picture, even serving as provocative commissionings to see your life as part of the Biblical story of the all-of-life-redeemed Kingdom coming. All of these speeches invite you to fresh thinking and renewed commitments to joining God in your careers and callings. You’ve got a lot of baby steps to take in this season of your life, and that’s okay. God is gracious, and you can take your time.
Another important theme that is hinted at in several of these reflections needs to be named here, too. Nicholas Wolterstorff talks movingly about having eyes that shed tears, and reminds us of the Bible’s invitation to “weep with those who weep.” John Perkins teaches from the Good Samaritan story about the Jericho Road where an unnamed person had empathy, the first attribute of a life of com- passion. Claudia Beversluis reminds you that “when your gut aches and your heart breaks” you should “find a place to share the pain.” I think that anyone who is going to maintain visions of vocation and be faithful in small things for God’s glory will have to become a person who is not afraid of shedding tears. As the late and still beloved contemplative writer Henri Nouwen put it, we must become “wounded healers.” The Bible is full of those who experienced hardships, mystery, confusion, hurt, tears, rage, and lament. To not name our fears and doubts is denial. We who want to develop a Christian worldview and care about the things God cares about in the very way God cares about them, simply must be prepared to host our hurt. We must honestly attend to the great anxieties we have about our own lives and about the state of the world. Don’t let anyone or anything (let alone these happy speeches inviting you to serve God in the years ahead) suggest that you can’t be honest about your own heart.
It isn’t the main theme of this collection, but it bears saying: if we try to struggle against the idols and dysfunctions and crude values of our culture, perhaps of our workplaces, maybe even of our own broken families, we will seem a bit counter-cultural. We may feel like weirdoes because we care so deeply and are in touch with the brokenness of this fallen world. Art historian and Christian philosopher Calvin Seerveld, in a collection called Biblical Studies & Wisdom for Living, writes to some graduating seniors and reminds them that Jesus said His yoke would be light. “It fits well over your graduating shoulders,” Seerveld, said, “even if it makes you feel maladjusted in our Darwinian survival- of-the-fittest society.” It is okay to feel maladjusted.
This idea about being prepared for hard times is the climax of my own talk given to graduate students at Geneva College, and I hope you take it to heart. The black gospel tradition that inspired the civil rights movement can instruct us all in this matter. I mention Mahalia Jackson singing to Martin Luther King, Jr. over the phone in the middle of the night, “Precious Lord, take my hand.”
If you are battered and bruised from trying to make a difference in the world, if you are sad and discouraged because you haven’t found your niche or your calling, if you are full of frustration and doubt and anxiety, or if you’ve faced disheartening resistance to your fresh ideas for healthy reformation in your church or workplace, you can sing the many laments from the Bible with integrity. You can cry out to God through your tears and fears.
Our glad and hopeful speeches collected here offer congratulations and inspiration and emphasize God’s desire for graduating seniors to take up their careers and vocations as holy callings. Each one of us deeply realizes that making the transition between Sunday and Monday, carrying faith into the work-world, market- place, and contemporary culture, is harder than it sounds. We know that we all have to cope with setbacks and anguish. We know from the Bible and the best thinking of Christian leaders throughout history, that this is normal; tears are nothing to be ashamed of.
A very creative writer who has experienced more than her share of anguish and who continues to give her life to others is Anne Lamott. In her lovely book Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair, she writes,
We connect with God in our humanity. A great truth, attributed to Emily Dickinson, is that “hope inspires the good to reveal itself.” This is almost all I ever need to remember. Gravity and sadness yank us down, and hope gives us a nudge to help one another get back up or to sit with the fallen on the ground, in the abyss, in solidarity.
Most commencement speeches don’t say this, but you shouldn’t be surprised when “gravity and sadness” yank you down. Be prepared to lament, to be with others in your times of need, and to sit with others in their own abysses. A high priority for you in this post-college time is figuring out how to find and form supportive community, to maintain your best friendships, and to find a local church body whose members can walk with you in life’s ups and downs.
Added to this collection of speeches is an epilogue by Erica Young Reitz who has served college students for many years. She has a book coming out, tentatively called Life After College, that will be about this time of young adult transitions. Erica’s book will be both visionary and practical, aware of both the fresh opportunities and looming pitfalls of young adult faith development and post-college discipleship. Her brief remarks here are themselves an integral part of this book, and the stories she tells are going to be helpful for you. They will assist you in moving from the profound and glorious rhetoric of these messages to the daily steps you need to take in order to live into this stuff.
I know I speak for all the contributors who allowed us to use their commencement addresses when I say that we truly hope that the next season of your life will be very meaningful, and that, though tears may be shed at times, you come to know deep, deep joy. God cares about you, about all areas of your life, and there are very significant ways God invites you to think faithfully and serve well wherever you find yourself. Together with your friends and church, you will have to figure out what that looks like.
These chapters deserve repeated readings and can be good companions along the way as you, in the great line from the chapter by Claudia Beversluis, “make God and God’s good news believable to others, not just through your words, but through the daily ways you live.”
You really can live well, friends. You will surely do good. And please, be true, be faithful. Know, above all, that the God who loves you, who calls you, who has sustained you thus far, is true. God will be faithful–whether you go far or stay put.
Byron Borger is proprietor of Hearts and Minds Books in Pennsylvania and author of the Booknotes blog. His reviews regularly appear on the Faith and Work Channel’s book review blog Work Cited.
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