Encouragement Note for graduates

by Dr. Jim Martin, retired vice president of HST

Congratulations, Harding University graduates!

What a significant moment as you receive your diploma this month! You finished! Your graduation will be a day of joy.   

This is a big moment. Yet, when you leave commencement, know that just life will continue to have many, many ordinary moments.

Imagine a mouse in a children’s book. It is small and seemingly insignificant yet ripe with real possibility. 

Award-winning author Kate DiCamillo has written a number of children’s books. She once shared a very helpful observation about the presence of mice in children’s literature: “I think it is because kids feel so small, so powerless and so pushed to the side.” 

Like children, so many moments in life feel small and seemingly insignificant. These moments may seem ordinary and inconsequential.

Picture yourself in Baskin-Robbins with a friend. You look at the seasonal flavors of ice cream:

• Winter white chocolate
• Peppermint
• Eggnog

You look at those flavors and all the others that are regularly offered at Baskin Robbins. Your friend then orders a vanilla cone. A vanilla cone! How ordinary. 

This describes the ordinary moments of life that we experience every day. Yet we are conditioned to desire and chase the extraordinary. We wait for the awesome moment, the incredible trip, the amazing purchase. We may wait for the day when life finally comes together — the dream job, the dream home and the magical relationship with the dream spouse. 

Meanwhile, we have a vanilla cone. The ordinary moments of life.

Consider these seemingly unremarkable moments: 

• A cup of coffee with a friend as you talk about your lives.
• You go to class. You work on your project. You go to bed. 
• A simple dinner where connections with someone deepen. 

What do we do with these small moments and so many, many others that shape who we are?

• Pay attention to what is happening right now. Do you want to focus so much on some imagined future that you miss the present moment?
• Pay attention to how you can be more fully present in this moment.
• Pay attention to what God might be doing in this moment. God is often at work in powerful ways even in the seemingly insignificant moments.

Live in this moment. Pay attention. Something good and powerful may be unfolding.