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SPS Student Speaker
Diane Thompson '08
School of Professional Studies
"Fellow graduates, distinguished faculty, administration and honored guests, good morning and welcome to this day of celebration – it’s finally here!
I am honored to stand before you today as a representative of the School of Professional Studies at Hope International University and humbled that I have this opportunity to share with all of you.
Students in the School of Professional studies, no matter what major, are faced with some very interesting circumstances. Since most of us study online, we don’t know what our classmates look like or know the sound of their voices. We don’t come to class on campus, in fact I think today is only the 5th time I’ve been here over the last two years! We don’t have to commute to school, but we may have class at one a.m., or in the middle of lunch. We don’t get to hang out in the library or stay after class to chat with the professor and yet, we have completed an entire degree online and, we couldn’t have done it any other way.
Though we’ve faced all of these challenges and more, we also share the common threads of self-motivation, perseverance and now, completion. We have made it to this very important and long-awaited day and now we are ready…but, ready for what?
If you’re like me, that has been a common question during the last few months, ‘what am I ready for? What should I do now that this phase is coming to a close? Where is God leading me?’
In Paul’s letter to the Philippians he says this;
‘I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Life is uncertain and it is a journey, but we have this promise that even though things may be fuzzy, God WILL bring to completion the work that He has begun in each of us.
I came to Hope and started working on the Christian Ministry degree two years ago. When I started this program I worked at a church as a worship arts director and now I work with the orthopedically impaired in a public school district. I began this program with the mindset that I would probably be in full-time church ministry for the rest of my life, and now I am on the road to becoming a teacher in the public school system. Things change all the time. Somewhere on this journey, I realized that teaching could be as much of a full time ministry as church work and that it’s something God might want me to pursue after finishing this degree. God has been working in my life to change me, rearrange me, and keep me on my toes so that I trust Him and not myself.
Maybe you’re like me. Maybe you started on one road, and somewhere on the journey things got divinely re-arranged. Maybe you’re not sure what your next step should be (and you don’t have to be one of the graduates today in order to feel the same confusion that we do!). Maybe you’re doubting, maybe you’re questioning, wondering, searching. If you’re there, it’s ok.
Life is a journey with many twists and turns, but we can take heart in the knowledge that God began His work in us when we decided to follow Him, and He WILL carry it on into completion!
We may not know what the next steps are but we know that if we look to God, He will direct our path. We also know, as we have learned to be good students of the Bible, that God’s plan for the world is the restoration, redemption, and healing of this world – and the kingdom of heaven coming to bear on earth. And we know that for some reason, God has chosen to use us as his servants and messengers to accomplish this task.
Knowing this, maybe our questions at this milestone should be, ‘God, how can I be a part of YOUR story? How can I bring heaven to earth in the way I live TODAY?
You see, it’s ok to think about the future and to ask those questions about what’s next but we mustn’t get so caught up in them that we forget to live right now. After all, TODAY is all we have – Yesterday is history and tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift from God. How then shall we live?
Let’s make each day count for eternity by the way we live TODAY, and as we look to the future, let us trust that God is faithful to complete His GOOD work in us, and in this world, until the day of Christ Jesus!
Class of 2008 today one thing is completed in us; we are graduates and we are ready to humbly serve God in this world, wherever that takes us.
Today is a gift - so let’s celebrate!
Congratulations and thank you!"