2007 Commencement address
Ed Diller
May 6, 2007
Rather than go through an extended listing of those present, let me simply say 'Greetings to all of you here today.' I am honored to be with you and especially honored to be able to speak. Congratulations to each of the graduates, to the families and friends of the graduates and to the members of this educational community.
As I place my timepiece on the lectern, I am reminded of a comment by Peter Wiebe at a recent meeting of Mennonite Educators in Pittsburgh: "Do you know what it means when a Mennonite Speaker moves his watch to the lectern?" Of course the answer to that question is "Nothing."
Bluffton University has played a powerful, formative influence in my life and in the life of our family. My wife, mother, father, son, daughter, daughter-in-law, son-in-law, sister, brother, brother-in-law, niece, nephew and other family members are Bluffton alums. I am also happy to say that many family members who are not alums in-fact are alums in-spirit and are involved in wonderful ways with this university and its programs. Bluffton has also been one of the primary church institutions serving the Mennonite congregation which my wife Karen and I attend. So I guess that makes me an insider with an insider's view of this institution.
But as I stand before you today, I don't want you to think that Bluffton has been merely a tradition in our family or for me, or merely a comfortable place enveloping family or religious history and memory. Indeed, as a precursor to what is to come, I should tell you that I have said for many years that "I learned to live at Bluffton" and "Earned a meal ticket a Harvard Law School."
Foundations and Futures
With that background, I have selected the topic "Foundations and Futures" as the title of my thoughts. Specifically, I want to assure you graduates (the rest of you may listen in) that you have been well prepared to walk into your future and then to talk about how that preparation will shape your future.
Each of you graduates must be wonderfully excited today. Achieving this milestone is itself a great accomplishment, and certainly portends new opportunities and new possibilities. There will be as many career and life paths as there are graduates here today. One or more of you will likely be investment bankers, other will be teachers, others farmers, still others religious leaders and others stay-at-home dads or moms. The possibilities are endless, and I know that you are anxious to live into the future and experience your life in all of its fullness. However, rather than focus on specific career paths, I would simply like to say - listen to me now - I would simply like to impress upon you that you are well prepared for the life path that you are on and for the paths that will unfold as your lives move forward.
You have been well prepared at Bluffton to handle the challenges you will face
How, you might ask, can you, Ed Diller, be so sure that we have been well prepared at Bluffton to handle the many challenges and opportunities that we will face during our lifetimes?
My answer is three-fold: first, personal experience - I vividly remember sitting as a new student in graduate classes in mathematics at the University of Oregon and trying to slouch low in my chair as a new student in first year classes at Harvard Law School. At those times, I viewed, with awe, deep humility and profound anxiety, my classmates from Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Michigan, Duke and other "national institutions." In those moments I wondered in the depths of my soul how I, or any person like me, born and raised in Pandora, Ohio, nurtured in Mennonite faith and communitarianism and educated at tiny Bluffton College could compete with the people in those classrooms - people who had been so well educated and exposed to so much of the world. Only after living through and with the initial apprehension, self-doubt and fear of failure did I discover that the life lessons I learned at Bluffton, and in our family and community of faith, had prepared me well - academically, intellectually and emotionally - to meet those challenges.
What are those prepatory life lessons learned at Bluffton? At least seven life lessons immediately to mind, and I am sure there are many more. Those seven are:
These lessons, and many more, learned here at Bluffton have provided the foundation for me to overcome fears, to look forward to new challenges and to accept appropriate opportunities as they came. Those lessons also allowed my wife Karen and I to view with hope and optimism the future that awaited us and our family.
Having experienced these things in my own life, and having seen how other members of our extended family have been well prepared for their lives, gives me the confidence to unambiguously state that you have been and are well prepared, based on your experiences here at Bluffton, for the paths you will travel as you move into your future.
The second reason that I am certain that you that you are well prepared relates to the Bluffton University Mission Statement: To prepare students of all backgrounds for life as well as vocation, for responsible citizenship, for service to all peoples and, ultimately, for the purposes of God's universal kingdom. What a wonderful, flowing, sweeping statement, and what profound and lofty goals. If you have not committed those words to memory, I commend them to you, and I might suggest that in the future you periodically ponder their meaning.
I know from experience that that mission is one that resonates deeply within the faculty, staff and entire campus community. I also know that as you move from this place in time and distance, the commitment to that mission by the faculty, staff and community, and the actions taken by many to fulfill those goals, will profoundly affect the way each of you views your life and your place in this world. It is my hope, and I truly believe, that no one here will have passed under the forested canopy of this campus, or slipped and slid through the ice and snow going to class or dinner, or walked through the meadows of this place on a spring day, or sat in a classroom with professors and classmates, and not been profoundly affected by the Bluffton Mission.
And finally, the third reason that I know that you are well prepared for the life path that you are on is that I and many thousands and millions across this nation have witnessed the way this campus community handled the tragic and horrific events relating to the bus accident in Atlanta. We were and remain saddened by the deaths and injuries that occurred on that fateful day, and our hearts went out and continue to go out to the families of the students, coaches and drivers. And yet in that midst of that tragedy, and in the midst of the many questions that burn unanswered in all of our minds as a result of those events, we who were on the outside looking in saw this community and the families of the dead and injured mourn in dignity and graciously accept the outpouring of sympathy and concern of the nation. We also witnessed those families and this campus community demonstrate, in a life-affirming way, in the midst of circumstances that sear and tear at the foundation of one's faith, that Christ is Lord and that our hope lies in Him. That demonstration was and remains clear evidence of the character of this institution and its people, and an indication that during your years here at Bluffton, you have been well prepared for the lives you will live.
So, in these three ways: my personal experiences, an understanding of how the Bluffton Mission Statement is incorporated into the life of this campus and an actual, microscopically observed demonstration of values by you, the campus community, I know that you have been well prepared at Bluffton to handle the challenges and opportunities that you will face during your lifetimes.
Embrace your life journey to fulfill your call to be part of God's universal kingdom
Why does that matter? That answer is that if you are confident that you are well prepared, you are more likely to make the most of the future, the calling, that lies before you.
I suspect that most of you have had some of the same experiences I described earlier; experiences where you were tempted to say "I am a little person" or "I come from humble origins" or maybe even "I went to a very tiny college in rural Ohio." Those feelings are natural and are fostered in many ways by the Mennonite values of simple living, discouragement of prideful attitudes and a deep suspicion of rampant individualism. And please don't mistakenly assume that I believe that those values are not important. They are very important, and I don't want to minimize them in any way. And yet it is critical that we not use humility or the disdain of pride or the suspicion of individualism as excuses for failing to use the gifts that each one of us has - the gifts that have been nurtured here on this campus. All of you have been touched by this institution and its people. The lessons you have learned and the experiences you have had here at Bluffton, are not trivial, they are not tiny or diminutive or insubstantial; instead those lessons and those experiences are expansive and broadening, and they have helped to fill each one of you with power and strength. You graduates now carry that training, that power and strength, with you wherever you are and in whatever circumstance you find yourselves.
So where does that solid preparation and the resulting empowerment lead? Directly to your future. A future that at this moment is impossible to predict and which will contain many starts and stops and changes in direction. If experience has taught me anything, it is that we are not truly in "control of our lives." The little bit of chaos, the unexpected and unanticipated moments, the unforeseen opportunities, the wonderful surprises and the unwelcome tragedies in our lives all serve to help us grow, to broaden and deepen our character, to enhance our judgment, compassion and wisdom and hopefully to see the presence of God in our lives and in our midst. And yet, even in the midst of happiness and delight and in the times of heartbreak and tragedy, you will know that you have been called to a life of engagement in a grand and wonderful purpose. You have been called, to quote the Mission Statement yet once again, for service to ALL peoples and for the purposes of God's universal kingdom.
To truly live into that calling, we need to allow the gifts that God has given each of us, and the reservoir of power and strength that lies deep within us, to be put to use wherever we find ourselves. We dare not attempt to constrain and control our lives too tightly, we must not shy away from challenges and opportunities, and we must not erect barriers that will keep us from recognizing and achieving our full potential and the role to which we are being called in God's kingdom.
In your time here at Bluffton, you have been prepared to look for opportunities that are life-enhancing for you and for those around you. Clearly not all [Quote] "opportunities" [close quote] should be followed. Some opportunities are more appropriate for and more suited to us and our particular talents and gifts.
So how do we choose the appropriate directions to move and the actions which we should take? We must look for those paths that will truly help us fill the place created for us in God's universal kingdom. That is the planning horizon and the compass that we must accept and look to, and you graduates have been prepared with many tools to help you find those paths.
The opportunities to move beyond what you can or ever have imagined for yourselves will present themselves. If you accept the challenges for which you have been prepared, they may lead to broad public exposure and acclaim, or they may lead you to toil in obscurity in difficult and seemingly thankless tasks. And yet, with the strong foundation that has been nurtured within you at this university, you should have the confidence to stretch yourselves and the confidence to move through the anxiety caused by self-doubt, beyond the fear of failure and past the paralyzing grip of hopelessness. In doing that, and in knowing that your ultimate calling is to play your role, however humble or however grand, in God's universal kingdom, you will be free to use the gifts that God has given you, with power and with strength, in ways that will give meaning to your life, ways that will serve those around you and most certainly in ways that are now beyond your comprehension.
Accept that future. Learn to wonder and rejoice in the unexpected. Walk towards a future of known and unknown challenges and opportunities and learn to embrace your life journey secure in the knowledge that you have been prepared, enabled and empowered, through your experiences here at Bluffton, to fulfill your call to be part of God's universal kingdom, wherever that might lead.
Thank you for the opportunity to be with you today. Best wishes, congratulations to each of you and may God's blessings be upon you.
