Congratulations to all the area high school graduates! No question it is a significant milestone in your earthly journey. I applaud all graduates for your hard work, productive efforts, and faithful commitment to achieving this step. But do not think for a moment that you reached this milestone all by yourself. You had some help. Actually, you had a whole lot of help.

It is common to fall into the trap of “celebrating oneself” as a graduate. Commencement speakers commend the graduates for a successful completion of requirements. Friends and family fight for a photo with you or of you outside when commencement is over. Graduation parties feature a series of photos, cumulative awards over the years, and a decorated cake on a table flowing with gifts and cards. The cards will spotlight your dedication, honors, and bright future.

Yes, it is easy to buy into the hoopla that high school graduation is simply … “all about me,” the graduate. “This is my shining moment! My glimpse into glory! My chance at small-town celebrity status!” We all want to be somebody. We like being put up on a pedestal. We want our accomplishments noticed. In short, we love to “celebrate ourselves.”

Don’t get the wrong idea. It’s not that I am against striving for excellence. Nor am I against striving to reach lofty goals we set for ourselves. In fact, I pity the one who has no goals but is content to meander his way through life. I am not against the sense of fulfillment that comes with attaining goals. What I am saying is this: don’t forget those whom God put into your path to guide,steer, and encourage you to reach this day that you are enjoying.

Of course, it begins at home with parents and grandparents. I can’t tell you how often my mother located and interrupted a sandlot baseball game in the neighborhood with a stern, “Is your homework done? I didn’t think so. Home. Now!” Then there was my cross-country coach, Jim Pearson, who also was my 10th grade English teacher. His encouragement to me, the “new kid from Iowa who was destined to become the next Steve Prefontaine,” made northwest Washington not such a drizzly, dreary place to live. Whether reading or writing in class or running on the hills of Malloy Road in the shadows of the Cascades, he prodded me, “You’re better than this. Give it everything you’ve got!” His penetrating brown-eyed, 30-something gaze stirred me to reach deeper.

Finally, during my senior year at the University of Minnesota, my Medieval Western History instructor, Dr. Stanford Lehmberg, took me to lunch at Bullwinkle’s occasionally on west bank. I’ll never know why he singled me out. He, an Episcopalian church organist in St. Paul, sitting at a bar with this young pietistic Lutheran preacher’s kid. How did that ever happen? There were over 200 history geeks in my upper divisional class. All I know, God had a hand in all these influential encouraging voices. Ironically, I still have my copy of the new 1977 Episcopalian Book of Common Prayer he gave me as a graduation gift. It’s signed and dated June 2, 1978. Forty years ago today.

These are only a sampling of those who were used by the Lord to get me to my graduation day, whether at home, or from Ferndale High School out West, or from Golden Gopher country. Graduation is more about celebrating these encouragers who reminded, prodded, or simply cared enough to take the time to invest in the life of a young kid. It’s not about “celebrating oneself” for that only leads to becoming individuals who are egotistical, conceited, and self-focused. Celebrating the encouragers in one’s life moves the heart to humility, gratitude, and amazement at the goodness of God.

He wants us, after all, to be like His Son who did not hang on to equality with the Father, demanding His rights and exalting self. Jesus made himself “little” that He might serve us with a sacrifice on the cross that defies our comprehension.

At graduation, what an opportunity to recall with deepest thankfulness the ones God used to serve us. When we needed it the most.