The Focal Point

In honor of today’s graduation ceremonies

The last assignment I completed for my Communication, Leadership, and Change senior capstone class (that’s a mouthful) was a commencement speech. The assignment was to write a commencement speech as if we were presenting it at graduation. I began thinking about what I would say as my final collegiate thoughts to my fellow graduates, and this is what I came up with.

“Congratulations! Today is your day. You’re off to Great Places! You’re off and away! You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.”

Those are the first lines of Dr. Seuss’ Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

Today, I’m proud to stand before this room of graduates and faculty and congratulate everyone on a job well done.

We’re off to great places. Some of you may be entering graduate school where you will continue your journey of higher education. Some will be joining the workforce or, as some like to call it, the “real world.” Maybe there are some here who will be taking the time to travel or have an adventure or two before settling in to life. I have no doubt that in this room there are future business leaders who will climb high on the corporate ladder; there are those who will launch a movement to better our world; and there are those who will start their own businesses doing something they are passionate about. Each person in here has a calling and a gift. Find them and you will find where you belong. 

We have brains in our heads. And for that we must thank our professors. Granted, the brain was there before, we just didn’t know how to use them. Our professors taught us how to think. They helped us unlock our potential. This University takes pride in graduating critical thinkers. And that is exactly how we have been taught. We are better prepared to solve the world’s problems whatever they may be. I know I am among some of the most creative people. You strive to think outside the box, and I’m inspired. Where ever you go, you will bring a new way of thinking. Don’t ever lose that. Thank you, professors, for not giving up on us when you weren’t so sure there were brains in our heads.

Despite all our education and preparation, we will all still fall on hard times. Life will not be easy. Even Dr. Seuss felt it was important to point out. “I’m sorry to say so but, sadly, it’s true that Bang-ups and Hang-ups can happen to you.” There may be times when our best isn’t good enough. The important thing to remember is every failure is a chance to learn something new. How you fail says much about your character. So fail well, and don’t dismay. Maintain your persistance.

Dr. Seuss made it clear that we are on our own now. To this point in our lives, we have had parents, family, and teachers telling us what to do next. These guiding forces in our lives may not completely disappear, but for the most part we are now on our own. This can be a great thing! We get to decide where we are going. Our futures are in our hands. Your future is what you make of it. And what could be more exciting than that? Choose wisely because every choice is important in shaping your future. 

I will leave you with one last thought from Dr. Seuss.

“And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)”

My name is Katy, and I’m a Christian. To clarify, this doesn’t simply mean I go to church or that my parents are Christian. Both of these are true, but what makes me a Christian is my conscious choice to make Jesus Christ lord of my life. 

A little background: 

• I was churched from day 1 of my existence. (For that I’m eternally grateful to my parents.)
• When I was 9 years old, I accepted Christ. (I could go into much greater detail about this moment, but I won’t for the sake of this particular post.)
• I continued to steadily grow spiritually through high school. 

Let’s fast forward to college. Everyone always says college is a huge adjustment. That sentiment has become white noise. For me, college became such a struggle because for really the first time I put God on a shelf. I wasn’t living like a Christian. I decided that I wanted to try life my way. That doesn’t mean I went out drinking every night and got wild. That’s not what happened. I just started to ignore God. My college years have been a series of me ignoring God and God drawing me back to him. 

My lowest point came about 2 years ago. Through a series of unfortunate events, I found myself pregnant. What?! Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. How could this happen to me? When I finally came to terms with the fact the my life just got flipped upside down and would never be the same again, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to get through it if I didn’t get my spiritual life back on track. The best part is God was right there waiting for me to run back to him. He picked up the pieces of my life and blessed me more than I could have ever imagined in the following months. 

Through much prayer, God led me to make an adoption plan for my son. That’s when he brought Rich and Becky into my life. These two wonderful people are now my son’s parents. And the icing on the cake is we are great friends! I love them like they are my own family. When they adopted my son, it was like they adopted me too (not that I needed adopting). Something like this is only possible through God’s grace and mercy. 

The bottom line is that being a Christian doesn’t make me perfect or mean that my life is easy. But the God I serve is perfect. He has always put people in my life who point me back to him. I wouldn’t even have a story worth telling if not for his amazing love for me. Guess what. He loves you too. He longs to have a relationship with you. 

I’ll leave you with this verse: 

“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” -Romans 5:8

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” -Galatians 5:22-23

Many of us, especially those of us who’ve been thoroughly churched, have heard this verse in some capacity. Tonight at church, it was used as a supporting passage to explain what the Holy Spirit does.

So where does verb tense come in? Notice that this verse says, “the fruit of the Spirit is…” But there is a list of things after the verb. Shouldn’t the verb be “are?” No. All of the things that follow go together. They function as a unit (the fruit). 

You might be wondering why this matters. It matters because as Christians, we can’t measure ourselves by how well we exhibit a few of these things. We should strive to master all parts of the fruit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control all make up the singular fruit of the Spirit. They aren’t individual fruits in a fruit basket. 

Hearing this gave me a whole new perspective on a passage I’ve heard countless times. God continues to open my eyes to his truth, and I love every minute of it!