Good morning, graduates. Good morning, Chancellor. Good morning, Madame President. As they like to call me. Sounds very familiar. Good morning, Board of Trustees members. Good morning, everyone, family. Good morning. Good morning. Father God, good morning.
It is a tremendous honor and I am deeply humbled. My privilege to stand before you today, not only as your commencement speaker but as a fellow Regent Royal, a proud alumna of this wonderful institution. This institution has helped to shape my life.
Indeed, I remember when this was just a dirt path and none of this existed and none of the other buildings existed. As a matter of fact, I feel like I have been robbed, Chancellor.
But I remember coming down that path and someone said to me, a fellow student I'd never met before, and said, "The Lord has some great things for you to do." I didn't know what those things were but I can tell you, part of it was tragedy.
And so you see as you're on your road, on your path, yes there is suffering involved. Sacrifice is one thing, but suffering is holy unto itself. Be prepared for that.
But my word for you today is go. One word—go. What do you, what do you mean by that, I know that you're asking, and it's a very good question.
Well, let me say it here to you what go means. I'm going to start with Abraham, a very good place to start. So the Lord said to Abraham, "Go. Get up leave your home, leave your community—leave all of that. Go."
And so Abraham might have said, "Where?" And God said, “Over there. Just go.” And Abraham might have said, "Well, is that east? Is that south? Where? Where is that? And east—well, is that southeast? Is that south southeast? Is that northeast east? What? What? What is that?”
“Over there.”
“Just pick up everything and go?”
“Go. I am the Lord. I am the Lord. Just go.”
And then I think about Moses. You've gotten your education—what do you do now? Just go. Moses, like all of us, had his education and he thought he was done, but there were some sheep that needed tending, apparently, and so he had to learn about them, too. Spent 40 years learning about those sheep.
But remember, before he got there, the Bible tells us in Acts 7 that Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action. Yes, he was educated in Egypt. Egypt was the America of its time. Egypt was the undisputed superpower of its time. Egypt was the military, economic,
scholastic and cultural power of its time.
So Moses, the Bible says, was educated and equipped in every way. Of course he still had those 40 years of desert learning to go through. And when he ran away little did he know that part of his training was going to be part of the desert. And so I say to our 80 year-olds, “Yeah, you're on track. You're right on track.” Because as you know, Moses, when he was called finally, was 80 years old. I hope not to be called when I'm 80, but that was good enough for Moses.
So Moses had excuses, of course he does—he's human. Moses said when God said, “Go. Go tell Pharaoh,” Moses had five excuses. “No,” he says. “Who am I to go and go to Pharaoh, political leader of the land?”
God said, “Go.” Moses said no. “What shall I tell them?” Second excuse.
God says, “Go.” Moses said no. “What if they don't believe me? What if they don't listen to me?” Any of this starting to sound familiar?
God says "Go." Moses again said no. “I don't speak well." Well, I just read to you that Acts 7 says Moses was powerful in speech. Interesting.
So Moses finally got to his real, his real excuse. “Please send someone else.” I don't know about you, but I've said that. I've said that anything that looked too hard. I've said it anything that looked remotely like sacrifice. I've said it…I've just said it. And thankfully the Lord has just, you know, said…and then I finally said yes.
So at every point when Moses said no, God said go. God prepared him. God had provided for him. And still he struggled.
We, as I've already said, can be that way, too. There are many excuses. God will continue to say go. You will have to actively disobey him, actively disobey him. So let me speak clearly. I am with you in your struggle.
Before I go any further I want to again recognize your parents, your spouses, your extended family, your children who all supported you to get to this moment. They sacrificed as well. You know this.
I think of the courage of Moses' mother, for example. Jochebed and his father Amran. The patience of his siblings. I mean it might have been hard to be Moses' siblings. Interesting. The sacrifice of Moses' wife, Sephora, and his sons.
Many people have done their part to get you here. Many. They have done their part. It is time for you again to do yours. Our call is to go. Go.
I think about my own family. They have sacrificed. You know you're not in this world alone.
We have real-world experiences, just as Moses did.
And so what I want you to do is whenever I say go, I want you to say, also unlike Moses, don't say no. I want you to say go. Are you ready? Very good. God is calling you. God is calling you to go. [Audience: Go.] Go. [Audience: Go.]
Go wherever he tells you. [Audience: Go.] Go even when you're tempted to say, "Who am I that I should go?" [Audience: Go.] Go even when you're tempted to say, "What shall I tell them?" [Audience: Go.] Go even when you're tempted to say, "What if they don't listen to me?" [Audience: Go.] Go even when you're tempted to say "I don't speak well. I don't have the right words." [Audience: Go.] Go even when you're tempted to finally say the truth, which is where you are, “I don't want to go.” [Audience: Go.]
Go. No excuses, no whining, no disobedience. I want you to… [Audience: Go.]
Remember who you are. Remember whose you are. Remember how far you have come. You have not come this far to only go this far. So…[Audience: Go.]
Remember that God will guide you. He will provide for you. He's brought you this far. He will never leave you twisting in the wind. He will never abandon you. And God, as Deuteronomy tells us, is not a man that he should lie. Either he is God or he isn't.
I won't pretend again that the road will be easy. In fact, you're following your God-given calling. There will be times when the path is narrow and the voices of doubt will be very loud, when the pressure will feel overwhelming. But let me assure you—you are more prepared than you know.
I don't remember any of the apostles having a doctorate of anything, and yet they changed the world. God left it in the hands of unlearned people to go and spread his word. Imagine that. We are servant leaders. We are kingdom-minded change agents. We are ambassadors of light in a world that desperately needs it.
You are the salt of the earth, the Bible tells us. And as Pastor D.J. Kennedy once said, salt is the preservative. And that means when you sprinkle the salt, you've got to rub it in. And sometimes you are going to rub people the wrong way, but how else are you going to preserve? You don't just leave it on the top.
So go. [Audience: Go.] I thought you'd forgotten.
Class of 2025, I say to you my heart-filled congratulations. You've not only completed a journey, you've started a movement. Go means go. Go means start. Go means go. Go means…[Audience: Go.] Go. And do even greater things and never forget again where you've come from.
God, your God, is with you. God, your God, is with you. Go with God.
God bless you, God bless your families, God bless our great Commonwealth of Virginia and God bless these great United States of America. Go. [Audience: Go.] Go. [Applause]
Neither the Catt Center nor Iowa State University is affiliated with any individual in the Archives or any political party. Inclusion in the Archives is not an endorsement by the center or the university.