Dear Class of 2023, One thousand days. For our undergraduates, four years ago, we met together at Getting Started Weekend, and there we outlined what your approximately 1,000 days at Cedarville would be made up of. We celebrated the start of a new, exciting chapter in your life. And now, among your family, friends, faculty, and staff, we’re celebrating once again. This time we celebrate your achievement of becoming a college graduate. For our graduate students, we celebrate your completion of an important next step in furthering your career and impact for Jesus Christ. Think about all of your classes. All of your conversations you’ve had with professors who love you and care greatly for your future. All those late nights in the dorm with the friends you’ve made at Brock, Printy, and The Hill, to name a few. Many, many meals at Chick-Fil-A — maybe some at Stinger’s too. And, of course, around five hundred times of gathering together in chapel, singing, hearing God’s Word preached, and seeing firsthand how that Word has changed so many lives. While here, you made friends for life, and some of you met that special someone whom you’re going to spend the rest of your life with. For others, it was here that you learned what you’re good at — what you enjoy, and you are about to embark on an exciting vocation. And there are those in this room who, by God’s grace, experienced the greatest joy of all — repenting of your sins and placing your trust in Christ Jesus for your salvation. We have experienced many significant milestones together within a relatively short period of time. Yet, as Christians, we don’t believe time is something to be trifled with, something to be wasted. “Make the best use of the time,” the Apostle Paul tells us. That’s what we’ve aimed to do while you’ve been here. We’ve sought to prepare you for your vocational calling. We’ve moved to inspire you to think deeply through our liberal arts core. We’ve built your experience around a community of fellow-believers, whom you’ve lived with, shared meals with, enjoyed Alt-Nights with, and gone to church with. Above it all, our highest goal with these past 1,000 days has been to set you on a trajectory to glorify God in all that you do. Ultimately, that’s all that matters. Our hope is that you’ve been steeped in the wisdom of God’s Word here, so that you can remain in it and proclaim it when you go out there — to the uttermost parts of the earth. For our graduate students, you have persevered through your coursework while maintaining full-time jobs, family responsibilities, and ministries within your church and community. We are proud of your diligence and are confident that your hard work will pay off vocationally as well as in Kingdom impact. So, graduates, my encouragement to you on this last day of your Cedarville experience is the verse that carried me through my first year here — “Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go” (Josh. 1:7–9). Come back to see us and know that we will always be here for you, praying that you will stand with compassionate conviction for the Word of God and the Testimony of Jesus Christ In Christ, Thomas White, PhD President, Cedarville University A Letter to Our Graduates
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