It is a season of graduations. Whether it be from kindergarten, elementary school, high school or higher education, graduation is a rite of passage, a move to a new chapter of life experience.
Such times are exciting and cause for celebration. They also create new questions for those students and their families. What kinds of challenges will these graduates face? How will they
adapt to a new setting? Will the trajectories of their lives tend toward the kind of growth that can be celebrated? Will they continue to learn both how to make a living and, more importantly, how
to make a life?

There’s a reason we call such celebrations commencements, because they are beginnings that bring both new opportunities and challenges. Whether it means the transition from the crayons
of kindergarten to the pencils of first grade or from the exams and papers of high school or college to the search for a job, life changes significantly. What’s true for students is also true in
many other aspects of life. Marriage, welcoming a new child into a family, moving to a new area, beginning a new profession, dealing with a major health issue, or facing a major crisis- all
mean a paradigm shift requiring adjustments at a significant level.

What is true in other arenas of life is also true for Christian followers of Jesus. If we are truly seeking to grow in our Christian walk, there will be times that commence a new chapter; and
that chapter often presents new ways of doing, new arenas of activity. Sometimes it’s a vocational calling. Sometimes it can be leaving a recliner to engage in acts of missional service.
For some it might be diving into a time of deeper scriptural study or a retreat into a more intentional prayer journey. It could mean swallowing our pride to seek reconciliation with
someone or laying aside anger and resentment that inhibit our spiritual life.

Whatever the nature of the Holy Spirit’s prompting, a response is necessary. When Jesus had a time of transfiguration on a mountaintop, Simon Peter wanted to make a shrine and bask in a
spiritual high. Jesus knew that his moment of exaltation was meant to be a springboard to the next stage of his mission, so he went down and was immediately confronted by a man who was
desperate for his son to be freed of awful fits. He also knew that the mountain experience was an empowerment for the tasks and challenges that stretched ahead of him.

A spiritual high is meant to be a commencement, an impetus for a closer walk with Jesus, a deeper love for God and other people, a renewed or redirected life of service, perhaps a greater
sense of hope in a struggle with adversity. Conversion sends a person into new living. It doesn’t even have to be a dramatic moment- it could be simply a whisper in your ear, perhaps
merely a recognition of a need that you are prompted to address, possibly a habit that needs to change or a guilt that needs release. Whatever the experience, whatever the impulse, the
response of a disciple is growth, renewal, a closer walk with Jesus.

As we celebrate with those who are new graduates in education, commencing on a new path in their lives, may all of us be ready for God to tap us on the shoulder, through scripture, a time of
worship, or just a moment of clarity that calls or convicts or challenges us. May we anticipate that God will show us a new or renewed area of mission and ministry. May we simply be open
to God putting something in our path that calls for a response of faith, hope, love, or service. However it comes, may it cause us to walk in lock step with Jesus Christ as faithful stewards of
the gifts God has provided and exemplars of the fruit of the Spirit Paul listed in Galatians 5. That’s the commencement we should all undertake.

The Reverend Dr. David Comperry
Field Staff Representative