Here’s a graduation
prayer written by Dr. Tom Cheatham for graduation at Mississippi State
University in December 2006.
A
Prayer for Graduates
God, what a great and
joyous night this is. It’s graduation, marker of success in college, the
commencement of a new era in life. Let’s get out of here!
God, what a lousy and
sad night this is. It’s graduation, and we’ll never pass this way again; it
feels like something is dying inside. Why do we have to leave?
What do we do now?
And what are you going to do? We’re on this boundary between now and not yet,
and we need help to sort out the feelings, the what if’s and the why not’s, the
grief and the giddiness.
Lead us then into the
mystery of this time and help us embrace it; teach us the power of this thin
place where heaven and earth meet and in the passing of the old something new
is being created. Make this night a thermocline of grace and amazement, where
surface gives way to depth, and we know what you might do in and among us.
Go with us, God, when
we leave this place. Go with us: goad us into tomorrow, guide us when we’re
lost, grab us with your strong hand when we’re about to fall off the precipice
of wrong choice, and grant us your peace so we may go confidently on this
footsore and sacred journey of our lives.
Glory to you in
heaven and on earth. Amen.
~
written by Dr. John Cheatham, and posted on The Connection blog. http://theconnection08.wordpress.com/
