Rekindling the Light – President’s 2015 Graduation Address

In his classic volume entitled “The Loss of the University” Wendell Berry laments: Underlying the idea of a university – the bringing together – the combining into one, of all the disciplines – is the idea that good work and good citizenship are the inevitable by products of a good education and a good – that is well developed – human being. This is the original intent of a university. To see truth and learning interwoven and interconnected with the formation of a good person.

Before you today are nearly 144 graduands – one of CHC’s highest number of conferrals – who have not just completed a degree but have been formed and woven because of their CHC experience. CHC exists to specialize in courses that are people shaping and people making. Our degrees incarnate people making principles and are taught by an exceptional staff who embody faith-learning imperatives. Before you today are CHC graduates who embody a holistic and unified rather than compartmentalized education and are valued by all at CHC as so much more than factory batches of products in a fragmented information production line.

I recently observed a debate between two secular university scholars on television, both trading facts and information in a frenzied flurry of claim and counterclaim. Information was evident, wisdom, however, was not and the entire exercise devolved into a verbal sledging match. We are daily confronted with oceans of information where facts are ubiquitous, driven by Google searches and 140 character tidbits of truth and trivia. Edna St Vincent Millay articulated the central problem of this information saturated generation:

Upon this gifted age, in its dark hour

Rains from the sky a meteoric shower

Of facts… they lie unquestioned, uncombined.

Wisdom enough to leech us of our ill is daily spun,

But there exists no loom to weave it into fabric

Where is the loom to weave it into fabric? In an age of fragmentation and threadbare thinking, only a grand narrative that is unified and coherent can suitably weave the disconnected bits into an integrated whole. This is why, at CHC, our core business for nearly three decades has been to weave into fabric a Christian worldview that unites faith with learning and belief with behavior. For it is only on that loom that life’s big questions find the credible answers that a frayed public square so desperately needs.

We live in a world of dark thinking… by that I do not mean necessarily the prevalence of evil or sinister thinking. Rather dark thinking occurs when there is an absence of light or where light is simply refused entry into the iron cages of contemporary public discourse. Truly Enlightened scholars are rare in this age of reaction-based opinions and populist info sound bites. What is so desperately needed in this dark hour are minds that have been illuminated.

EM Forster in that Literary Classic Howard’s End juxtaposes these two views of higher learning by stating: Your universities? Oh, yes, you have learned men who collect . . . facts, and facts, and empires of facts. But which of them will rekindle the light within?

The rekindling of that light within can only come from a coherent and comprehensive illumination – allowing a capacity to shine for every graduate! To reflect light and life in all of its variegated dimensions – physically, intellectually, socially, emotionally, spiritually. The light of truth always emancipates and expands understanding. CS Lewis described such light by stating “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen… not only because I see it but because by it I see everything else.

There is a well-known and much loved Sunday school song which declares a timeless truth: “This little light of mine… I’m going to let it shine… So graduands let your light shine. Radiate His truth. Let your brilliance be known and seen by all. We trust that your journey through your years at CHC has rekindled a light within and has been one of illumination and enlightenment that has drawn you closer to the one who is Light and a lamp to your every step. We pray that the light within has been illuminated and that your way ahead as transformed people has been enlightened through your CHC experience. Allow that light to continue to lead and guide and inspire you as you seek to fulfil all that God has purposed for you in your generation.

New York Times best-selling author Marianne Williamson – encapsulates this call to radiate for every graduand when she writes: Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us… You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same…

Graduands, you leave us today, always and from this day forward as a CHC graduate, tomorrow, next week, next year and for the rest of your lives. Well done on this outstanding achievement! As you now prepare for this new chapter; know that you go with the cheer squad of CHC staff, students and community cheering you on to shine His glory and make a difference. Consider what your education at CHC has done to you?? In you? Through you? In regards to your call? Your purpose? Reflect how the illumination of His story and enlightenment of learning in regards to His creation will shape your work and your destiny. We all look forward to the hopeful promise that each of you, in some way, will be a shining catalyst for God and for good in your world and will be transformative agents of change in your generation. God bless you our 2015 cohort of world changers – Let your light shine!!! Be Brilliant!! And may His Grace, truth and love guide your steps as you Light up the darkness.

Professor Darren Iselin

President, CHC