Graduation 5-31-2010

On high school and college campuses all across the United States young men and women lined up last month robed in graduation caps and gowns grinning at their friends. Their eyes scanned the audience, peering past dangling tassels in search of family members who searched for them. Cameras and cell phones lit up stadiums and auditoriums with bursts of light seeking to capture the magic of the moment.

Presidents, principals, guest speakers and valedictorians spoke of new horizons, a future yet to be written, a world to be changed. They urged those who have reached this achievement to believe in themselves and to never stop learning.

Every graduate that walks across the stage to shake hands with administrators and receive their diploma represents a unique story. Few are as unique as Helen Small who graduated with a Masters of Science degree from the University of Texas at Dallas. Helen is ninety years old. One of her teachers, Dr. John Santrock, a professor of psychology said. “What especially stands out about Helen as a student is how appreciative she is of the opportunity to learn.” Commenting on her college experience as a ninety-year-old, Helen said, “It’s helped me start a whole new phase of life.”

Graduation commencements inspire us because they not only recognize significant achievement, they celebrate new beginnings, new possibilities and opportunities, or, as Helen said, the start of a new phase of life. Education offers to the young the opportunity to acquire knowledge and skills that equip them for the future. For those who are older, it offers the opportunity to re-tool, to start over, to pursue new dreams.

Nothing is as important for a new start on life as a spiritual transformation that connects us with God and places in our hearts the values that make life meaningful. Proverbs says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” In Ezekiel God said, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”

God is always about new beginnings. He offers to the young the opportunity to launch their lives on the path that leads to life and, to those who are older, the opportunity to wipe the slate clean and start over. Whether or not you hold a formal degree from an institution, whether you are nineteen or ninety, you can make a new start on life. Paul wrote in Corinthians “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new.”