To the Courageous Class of 2020
Esteemed faculty, honored administration, wonderful parents and grateful graduates, it is my delight to speak to you on this, the occasion of your graduation from an academic institution of learning.
Although this event certainly doesn’t look or feel the way that you thought that it would only 3 months ago, let me assure you that graduation is only one day in a lifetime of wonder and unmatched joy.
You, courageous Class of 2020, due to a worldwide pandemic, have been forced to forfeit all of the celebratory events and happenings that usually accompany one’s graduation from high school or from university.
We, as your adoring public, have been watching you, wondering how you would handle disappointment, dashed hopes and lack of deserved applause.
While the disappointment and even frustration you are experiencing are certainly understandable in these unpredictable times, let me assure you that disappointment often serves to build the muscle of compassion and that frustration is able to develop the resolve of hope in the character of a man or a woman.
You are more than the pandemic so don’t let it define you ~ instead ~ be defined by the years that have woven the miracle of kindred relationships, of necessary disciplines and of a bevy of goals in your soul.
You are more than a day of celebration no matter how deserved that day of celebration might be! You will learn this lesson often in life.
Let me explain …
The day of your wedding is only one day but your marriage will last for a lifetime.
The birth of each of your children will only be one day in your life but you are charged with the task of loving and training them for the rest of your life.
Graduation is just one day … the prom is just one event … and the last day of classes, while achingly beautiful, is not the stuff of which a lifetime is built.
May I tell you a story? After all, no graduation speech worth remembering is complete without a story of two!
My second grade teacher, a war-bride from Australia, wrote a phrase in my school year book that I have never forgotten.
Now remember … I was only 8 years old when Mrs. Dombrowski penned this quote in the black and white picture book from my rural school district.
“To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the day the night, thou canst not then be false to any man.”
Perhaps, because you are all brilliant and credentialed scholars now ~ you recognize those words as coming from the Shakespearean play “Hamlet”.
They were spoken by Polonius as his last piece of advice to his son Laertes.
But let me get back to the second grade …
What was Mrs. Dombrowski thinking?
She wrote those words in the yearbook of a girl who was only on the cusp of reading “Little House in the Big Woods”.
This is what I have come to believe … Mrs. Dombrowski wasn’t addressing the 8-year-old Carol, rather, she was leaving a message in a bottle for a 16-year-old Carol … and a 39-year-old Carol … and a 65-year-old Carol.
Class of 2020 … the scope of your life is about to enlarge in ways that you have never before imagined!
I want to leave you a message in a bottle, just like Mrs. Dombrowski did for me. I hope you will discover and understand the meaning of this message years and years from now.
Perhaps what I am sharing today won’t make much sense to you ~ just like Shakespeare didn’t make sense to me at 8 years old.
But someday … you will remember these words … penned by a physician named Luke in conjunction with the Holy Spirit
“For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay.” ~ Acts 13:36
God has a purpose for you!
He has thought about you, planned for you and deliberated about all that you would become and all that you would potentially accomplish during your tenure on planet earth.
God has plans for you in your own generation! How exciting is that?
Can you feel the adrenaline of heaven causing your heart to beat faster and your mind to be filled with all sorts of amazing possibilities?
Let me apply this to my life first and then we will get back to you …
If I lived before the Reformation ~ I would be copying the Bible unto parchment for the next generation …
If I lived during the 1800s ~ I would be a woman Pony Express Rider taking the Gospel across the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains …
If I lived in the early part of the 20th Century ~ I would have been a missionary traveling across the stormy oceans to reach foreign soil and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
But that wasn’t when I was born ~ I was born in the middle of the 20th Century to have impact during the first part of the 21st Century.
God intends you to bring something on purpose to your generation!
Live like you were made for greatness – because you have been made for more than a calendar date and more than a single event … you were made with the fingerprint of God upon your very soul.
Live like you are a masterpiece ~ because in the estimation of the One who created you ~ you are the crowning achievement of His creative genius!
Live like your life matters ~because it does! Your life matters to the plans and purposes of God for your generation.
Be a voice of hope … a dreamer of dreams … a man or a woman of rare excellence … and a treasure chest of joy!
Class of 2020 ~ Be true to the “you” that God made you to be!
You have a purpose that is greater than your college degree … greater than your family … greater than one single day of your life.
You have a divine purpose that transcends your future income and outshines the applause of the masses.
You, Class of 2020, are part of the grand plan of God! So live like it!
Thanks for listening to my heart this week. As you know by now, my heart is truly not a perfect heart but it is a heart that is filled to overflowing with gratitude for the life I have been given and for the people who walk with me. And, it continues to be a heart that is relentlessly chasing after God and all that He is!