Four years ago we were heading into our previous company conference, from which we would leave a bit early to attend Caleb's graduation from the USAFA. President Obama was his graduation speaker. Yesterday, Obama spoke online for the class of 2020 collectively, a generation of students leaving high school and college at a fragile time. So it was with a bit of nostalgia that we listened to both versions of his address. Much of it was vintage wisdom of the sort one expects from our leaders, tempered by the truth that no one truly knows what the rest of 2020 will bring, or how profound the impact of this time will be on the world our graduates inherit. He told the high schoolers to have courage, to stick to their values and do what they know is right, and to do that in community. He told the college grads a similar thing: be grounded in real local actions, work with others, seek justice for everyone. To all that we can say, AMEN.
Already we can sense a deeper awareness of the smallness of the planet. We interact with our natural environment at seven billion points, and this time the point where a virus jumped species happened to occur in China. Last time it was the DRC. Next time it might be Brazil. The interconnectedness of humanity carries promise as well as potential disaster. And the impact of such disasters is not felt equally around the world: the poor suffer disproportionately from climate effects, from disease, from recession. Obama's points about global thinking and virtual access needing to be combined with local action and community rang true. All change starts with real people and places, with problems being identified and solved in specific locales and times. We are better when we sharpen and push each other. No one gets to graduation day without help, and the best changes are ones that are refined by others. I hope his words are heard this weekend as a call to hope. And a call to thoughtful engagement with the world. Nothing beats proximity for building empathy and ideas. We need graduates to take risks and reach difficult places, to let the hard days spark ideas and faith. We can use many of those with us in Serge.
But it was his final phrase that stuck with me today: as you set out to change the world, we will be the wind at your back.
I'm just a year younger than our former president, and I found that encapsulation of our generation's role to be poetically succinct. It is our children who will reshape the post-COVID world. They are already restlessly aware of inequality, of the shallow promise of unfettered greed. They are already thinking about what makes a service essential, of careers that have been necessary when things fall apart. They are already on the front lines of risk, and thoughtfully seeking community.
The wind at their back. The spirit blows where it will. Let us have the graceful humility to empower the story whose plot-line is shifting to them. Let us encourage, enable, inspire, cheer.
Because isn't that how God works for us too? A still small whisper, a bruised reed, an invitation. A wind at our backs that sent us out here to the frayed edge, a breeze that directs and refreshes but does not force. When the seasons change here, the wind blows. Let us be part of that change without needing to control it.
Dr. Isaiah graduated last year, and nurse Ivan is due to graduate in June . . may we have grace to let THEM plan the new NICU care!
Already we can sense a deeper awareness of the smallness of the planet. We interact with our natural environment at seven billion points, and this time the point where a virus jumped species happened to occur in China. Last time it was the DRC. Next time it might be Brazil. The interconnectedness of humanity carries promise as well as potential disaster. And the impact of such disasters is not felt equally around the world: the poor suffer disproportionately from climate effects, from disease, from recession. Obama's points about global thinking and virtual access needing to be combined with local action and community rang true. All change starts with real people and places, with problems being identified and solved in specific locales and times. We are better when we sharpen and push each other. No one gets to graduation day without help, and the best changes are ones that are refined by others. I hope his words are heard this weekend as a call to hope. And a call to thoughtful engagement with the world. Nothing beats proximity for building empathy and ideas. We need graduates to take risks and reach difficult places, to let the hard days spark ideas and faith. We can use many of those with us in Serge.
But it was his final phrase that stuck with me today: as you set out to change the world, we will be the wind at your back.
I'm just a year younger than our former president, and I found that encapsulation of our generation's role to be poetically succinct. It is our children who will reshape the post-COVID world. They are already restlessly aware of inequality, of the shallow promise of unfettered greed. They are already thinking about what makes a service essential, of careers that have been necessary when things fall apart. They are already on the front lines of risk, and thoughtfully seeking community.
The wind at their back. The spirit blows where it will. Let us have the graceful humility to empower the story whose plot-line is shifting to them. Let us encourage, enable, inspire, cheer.
Because isn't that how God works for us too? A still small whisper, a bruised reed, an invitation. A wind at our backs that sent us out here to the frayed edge, a breeze that directs and refreshes but does not force. When the seasons change here, the wind blows. Let us be part of that change without needing to control it.
1 comment:
Praying for you and those who serve with you, and those surrounding you who suffer. Sheltering is hard, but it spares great numbers of people, as California is now illustrating. I am also praying for all of Africa, as this terrible scourge again attacks those who have already suffered terribly in the widespread Ebola plague. May God shed His mercy over all of us, but especially on those of you who serve to deliver it. God bless you. Judy in HMB
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