This is closed circuit to the Alliance High School Class of 2021.
It was 44 years ago that I graduated high school.
Raymond Central High School (Mustangs) Class of 1977.
Located 15 miles northwest of Lincoln, Nebraska.
And here we are on the threshold of graduation for the Class of 2021. At this time one week from today – all of you will be Alliance High School Alums. Or Alumni. Or Alumnus. Take your pick.
If you play around on the internet, you’ll find alumnus is a Latin word that dates to the 1640s. British dictionaries will inform you that ALUMNUS means – To Nourish, or To Nurture.
In the English language family, nourish and nurture are kissing cousins. Other members of the family include cultivate, sustain, comfort, encourage, support, promote, and bolster. And if the English teachers that have invaded this closed-circuit message will give me a pass – I’ll add the word compliment.
So, let me compliment the Alliance High School Class of 2021. It would be an understatement to simply describe you as talented.
A better word might be gifted.
I’ve known several members of the Bulldog Class of 2021 since the days you made your mamas glow with pre-natal excitement – despite their backaches, weight gain, morning nausea, headaches, dizziness, swollen feet, bladder discomfort and mood swings that sent your fathers searching for the nearest bomb shelter. And, yet, here you are. 18 years later. Loaded with talent. Or, if you will, gifted.
Again, ALL of you have talents that have allowed you to serve your school and community well. You’ve taken your gifts and combined them with hard work to enjoy the successes that you will rightfully celebrate over the next week.
But please remember, these are gifts that you have received from God.
If you want proof, I encourage you to read in the 12th Chapter of First Corinthians were Paul writes, “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.
In other words, God working through you.
Earlier, I mentioned that the word Alumnus was related to nourishing or nurturing. And, to me, part of nurturing is taking another one of God’s gifts and putting it into action. That’s the gift of compassion.
Maybe compassion is not so much a gift as it is an expectation. It may even be camouflaged as common sense. That golden rule thing that we all learned as kindergartners. Treat others as we want to be treated.
My guess is, if you look back on your 13 years of education, you probably remember a time or two when you could have shown more compassion to a fellow classmate.
Believe me, there were plenty of times during my school days when I could have, and should have, shown more compassion.
Allow me to share this story about one of my high school classmates:
Her name was Sharon. She was a shy, quiet girl that I can best describe as – skin and bones in a sweater. She was a painfully thin girl who never smiled.
Why would she smile? Daily, she was ridiculed by my classmates for her frowns, lack of communication skills, and thin physique. And I committed the biggest crime in assisting with Sharon’s misery. I did nothing to stop the harassment that today we know all too well as bullying.
Despite this mistreatment, Sharon had the courage to attend our ten-year class reunion.
On that warm evening in May of 1987, I bumped into Sharon. I offered her a weak hello mixed with an uncomfortable smile. I asked her if she remembered me. Her answer was stunning. This patron saint of high school loneliness looked me in the eye and said, “Yes, I remember you, Kevin. You were one of the few people who treated me nicely.”
My knees buckled. It was an unwarranted and undeserved assessment of my character. Sharon would have had every right to tell me to my face what I really was during our school years together:
A compassionless coward.
But she didn’t. Instead, she updated me on her life and family and then we went our separate ways. I’ve not seen her since.
God’s gifts are amazing. He gifted Sharon with courage, forgiveness, and compassion.
The Alliance, Nebraska High School Class of 2021 is made up of many gifted people. May you be a Bulldog alum that nourishes. That nurtures. That compliments. That comforts. That encourages. That cultivates the human spirit. That offers compassion to the Sharon’s of this world.
The way Jesus did when he was hanging on a cross and said, “forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.”
God has gifted you. Don’t waste His gifts.