- Hope you're having a
good Tuesday afternoon,
and I just want to
thank you for joining in
on a weekly basis to see how
we're doing at George Fox
and perhaps to offer a
little encouragement.
First, I just want to thank
all the graduating seniors
who wrote in and answered the survey.
Almost two hundred of
you provided suggestions
for how we might approach
graduation this year.
Then I took all those suggestions
and I met with a group
of seven seniors on Zoom,
and we talked about each of them,
and we came to a conclusion.
So we decided that on August the 15th
we will have our normal
graduation where we bring
everyone together at
Stoffer Stadium to celebrate
your great achievements.
That will include department receptions,
the faculty will be here, all the staff.
We're just really looking
forward to having you back.
Now that we have a date, you
can put it on your calendar,
and you can begin to
plan in that direction.
For those who aren't able to
make it on August the 15th,
we'd invite you to come
on December the 19th,
which is our normal midyear graduation,
and we'll make that a
special day for those of you
who come on that day to
celebrate your 2020 achievement.
In addition, there were
a small number of people
who wished to have a virtual
graduation on May the 2nd,
at least to have some
acknowledgment that on that day
would've been the completion
of your experience
at George Fox.
So we're going to do that as well,
and you're going to be
receiving some information
on how to log in on that day
and join us for a virtual recognition,
and we hope to make that
special for you as well.
So thank you again for your
willingness to participate
and to offer suggestions.
And we just want you to know
that we're really looking
forward to having you back on campus.
And just encourage you to
finish the year at a height
even though I know it's not easy
being distant from the campus.
It's really a difficult time.
I think almost everyone knows
this is not a normal time in any way.
I think this has been
the most disruptive time
of my entire life for our culture.
It is different.
There are people who are out of work,
those who are worried
about being out of work.
There's certainly people who are sick,
and then lots who are
worried about getting sick.
So it's just different.
And I think there's all kinds of people
that have been offering encouragement.
This past week, I don't
know if this is something
that you listen to or not,
but the Queen of England
gave an address, and I thought
it was quite spectacular.
And here's just a couple
small quotes from her address.
She says, "While we have
faced challenges before,
"this one's different.
"This time we join with all
nations across the globe.
"I want you to know that we will succeed,
"and that success will
belong to every one of us.
"I hope in the years to come,
"everyone will be able to take pride in how
"they responded to this challenge.
"Those who come after us
will say that the Britains
"of this generation were as strong as any."
Although she was talking to the people
of the United Kingdom, I
thought her words were just
as informative or helpful for those of us
who are in the United States.
In a sense of challenge,
a time of challenge,
it always comes to us who are leading
at the time to step up
and step in to the moment.
And we've seen our healthcare
workers, our teachers,
our staff, people in the community
who are simply responding
and helping anyone they can
during this time of great challenge.
And I hope that you find her words
to be of sustenance as well.
In addition, you know,
I always think that,
especially after Easter
week, that as Christians,
we have a sense that we are
not just built for this world.
But that the experiences that we now have,
the work that we're now
doing is preparing us
for another world.
C.S. Lewis used to call
this the shadow lands.
The real world is the one that is to come,
and every experience here is
preparing us for that world.
In one of his great sermons that he gave
in the midst of conflict in England
called "The Weight of
Glory," he made this comment
in the middle of that sermon:
"At present, we are on
the outside of the world.
"The wrong side of the door.
"We discern the freshness
and purity of the morning.
"But they do not make us fresh and pure.
"We can not mingle with
the splendors we see.
"But all the leaves of the
New Testament are rustling
"with the rumor that it
will not always be so.
"Some day, God willing, we shall get in."
I always loved that phrase,
that we're being prepared
for the world that is to come.
And the resurrection represents
the victory over death
and our entry into that
door which will lead us
into the world to come.
This past week, my mom
and dad are 83,
and so I called them on the phone
to just to kind of remind them
that they needed to be careful,
that they needed to be washing their hands
and following all the guidelines.
And my mom stopped me halfway
through the conversation
and she said, you can always tell
when you're gonna get a wise statement
'cause she said, "Son,
son, I'm 83.
"If I don't die of this, I'm
gonna die of something else.
"I'll be careful.
"I'll try to do the best I
can. But I've been walking
"with the Lord my whole life
and I'm looking forward
"to the door that leads to a
new relationship with him.
"So whether it's this
or it's in a few years
"with something else, just
know that I have confidence
"in the life I've lived
"and I'm looking forward
to greeting Jesus soon."
So I hope that's encouragement to you
as you think about what
you're experiencing
at the moment and what indeed is to come.
He is risen, and for us
that brings great hope.
