For those of you who could not be at the graduation ceremony, he is my part of the speech that was delivered by four students.

Part 1
This is not the school I started in. Sure, the name is the same, the location (for now) is the same, but this is not the school I started in, in the Fall of 2003.

It was my first semester and there I was, sitting in a 10 x 12 room with 10 other people. Two dim incandescent lights lit up the space in a rather dreary way. Across from me was a woman with red hair, she looked important, more important than the rest of us in the room. To my right was a man holding a traveling coffee mug with a tea bag sticking out from under the cap – he too looked more important than the rest of us, or at least more comfortable. I noticed his shoes, red leather clog slip on’s. I noticed his wedding band, strangely similar to mine. Just then the door shut and the room got darker.

As the semester went on I was profoundly confronted with what it meant to be introduced to the world of counseling. I didn’t particularly enjoy this introduction, in fact, I spent most of first, and even second semester hating the question: “So where do you want to go today?” Subconsciously I was thinking NO where, I don’t want to go anywhere, the only place I want to go is out of here and back to bed. Why am I here, I am an M.Div student I want to be learning theology.

This is not the school I started in. Sure, the name is the same, the location (for now) is the same, but this is not the school I started in, in the fall of 2003.

I took a class this past semester called ‘Naming the Future.’ The only assignment in this class was to write an integrative paper that pointed us toward our future. As I struggled through this paper I kept on coming back to scenes in my life where the following phrase felt true “You can only take someone as far as you, yourself have gone.” Here I was, a third year M.Div student, ready to graduate, writing a paper about the necessity for a pastor to be in counseling. I wrote, “the level of health that a self has is the very most the system of others can have. It is impossible for a person to have a healthy team if the self is not healthy.”

I am not who I started as. Sure, my name is the same, but I am not who I started as, in the fall of 2003.

Speech 2
A recent Verizon Wireless ad campaign shows the “Can you hear me now” guy with a crowd of people behind him, following him wherever he goes. What a beautiful picture this is of the passage we read earlier. We are surrounded by people everyday, I am surrounded by people everyday.

But, who am I? Who are you? Who are we? The scriptures tell us that we are the Body of Christ, we are the hosts, and we are the cloud of witnesses. I have come to believe, but often forget, that I can not go through this life alone, I need to confess so that those around me can help turn my desires into good.

It is an honor of mine to stand here today and say that a whole host of witnesses has helped to turn that which I desire into good. The number is too great to start naming. But many of you are here today, and for that I am grateful. But others have moved geographically, or are writing books in heaven, and still others could not be here. But I will move forward from this place with the words from a friend, “At times you may feel and seem alone. May you, with eyes of faith, see there are others who are by your side.” These words were given to me, so I now give them to you. May we all go forward knowing that there are others who are by our side.

peace
joel