Baccalaureate Ceremony
Alumni Response
Elaine Livas '83

I am so excited for you. Thank you for letting me share in your joy today.

But, you know there can't always be sunshine.

Everyone and everything today and tomorrow will tell you that: "This is your moment." A chance that others can only dream about:

• the person who works in housekeeping in a hotel
• the person who works as a near slave in migrant camps and fields
• the person who is paralyzed and cannot rise from their bed
• the person whose mind torments them
• the person who has no access to books or running water
• the person whose family members have died from treatable disease

I believe there is a Kairos (Kyros), a fullness of time, an appointed time for each of us.

That there is all the difference in the world between an unripe apple and an apple's sweetness, ripened by time.

• There is a time to wait and watch, and there is a time to "arise and walk." This is a moment lent to you by God. Your time. A ready, set, go moment.

"Timing is everything"?- timing is God's.

He is neither early nor late. He has an appointed time-just the right time. A moment when time is a gift unto itself. The joy and hope you feel today rests in all of your days when it rests in

the God who hung the stars,

who knows the number of hairs on your head,

who knit you together in your mother's womb.

The God who never slumbers and is always on time.

• Os Guiness notes in his book Prophetic Untimeliness that Americans view time differently than people in other parts of the world. Americans measure time in terms of seconds or even nanoseconds, while Africans (Kenyans?), for example, think in terms of months or years. . I was struck by the thought that, "Americans have watches but no time, Kenyans have time, but few watches."
• But kairos is different that chronos. Not just time passing, but time with meaning.

You will experience great blessings and great loss in the years to come. If you don't, I would suggest you are not fully alive. Great things are expected of you. Not necessarily great acronyms like CEO or CFO or MBA or PhD, but let your credentials be compassion and mercy; humility, and generosity and respect.

The Bible tells us "From those who receive much, much is expected, and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded."

You will find yourself in positions of leadership and power, both in the marketplace and in your family. Parents, you will be relieved to know, I honestly can say that I use my Dickinson education everyday of my life.

At times you will be tempted to keep your time and money for yourself, for fear they will run out. Refuse this fear. Don't live in the neighborhood of "us" and "them," but open your life to the whole community.

I encourage you to Risk.

Risk being with people who are different than you.

Risk speaking the truth when it is unpopular.

Risk trying something that others say cannot be done.

Risk loving someone that others say is too unlovable..

Risk your reputation, your livelihood, and perhaps--even your life

Risk failure.

Do not stand aside.

Do not abdicate your place in the world. Speak UP for those who have "forgotten the sound and power of their own voice." Speaking truth to power,-- and know when to shut up. Listen alot more than you speak. Dismiss no life as being without purpose or value.

Remember that you are a part of history. Consider the larger story, outside your own personal journey.

No matter what you do, volunteer somewhere. Bless someone besides yourself. Give generously-not until it hurts, but until it doesn't. Guiness writes, "For to live only for oneself is to have received God's grace in vain".

Remember those who live in fear

those imprisoned against their will,

those who fight for our freedom,

those who care for our infirm,

those who die with a prayer for us on their lips.

They have paved the way to today for all of us.

Live in a receptive mode, as a lifelong student.

When I left Dickinson , I thought that I was done growing and was just going to live a steady life. Instead, I discovered most of my "aha" moments were ahead of me

In my experience working with the poor I see, there is a time, a window of opportunity, characterized by an open, tender, teachable heart. A moment when people are ready to receive what life has told them a hundred times-and to let go of that which is not a life-affirming truth.

It is a great privilege to witness such transformative moments.

One of the people I admire most today is learning to read. She is in her forties and has had a most difficult life, yet she delights in showing off her "homework" and carefully drawn letters of the alphabet. For so long she merely survived, and now she has embraced the blessings of life.

Always let love be your first, last, and middle step.

Make no motion without it. Don't move your hands, your feet, your mouth, especially not your eyebrows.Live an examined life that will let you know, LOUDLY, when you are not being loving and truthful.

I pray that you will find discomfort, be ill-at-ease with easy answers and superficiality. That you will have the courage and respect to look people in the eyes. That you do not ever squander your value, or diminish anyone else's. I still cherish the friendship I have today with the man who cleaned the HUB some 20+ years ago when I was a student.

I believe your life will cost you-just by the very nature of it. Be prepared to persevere and stay present when life seems overwhelming. Paul's letter to the Romans says: "Suffering brings about perseverance, and perseverance character, and character hope. And hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts."

Beware of being carried away by the popular current of despair and victimhood, or fall into the trap of what Dutch writer Henri Nouwen termed "calculated dissatisfaction." Don't spend a moment giving your second best.

You cannot live in "perpetual sunshine". (Yancy-Christianity Today) But you can live in the promises that will be kept in the fullness of time. There will be times, like today, of great promise, and for some, great uncertainty. There will be times when hope seems foolish, makes no sense. These are the times when hope is most needed.

Remember that you are precious.

Precious to your friends, precious to your family, precious to Dickinson , and precious to your creator.

God is a promise keeper. If He says I will never leave or forsake you, He means it. When he says I will be your God and you will be my people, He means it.

Kairos (Kyros), a fullness of time, an appointed time purposed by our creator. This is a moment lent to you by God. This is a ready, set, go moment.

Luke writes, "Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back."

Remember who you are this day: a person of privilege and unlimited opportunity-and remember to whom you belong. It is, indeed your moment, but all moments belong to God. It is His story, and we are a small but precious part of it.

So, move forward and remember. This is your time-yours, ours, as we rejoice with you, and of course-God's.

Ready, set, --go in peace. Amen.

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