Courtney Kuepfer delivered the valedictory address at Rosedale Bible College’s virtual graduation ceremony May 23, 2020. (You can watch the online commencement at RosedaleBibleCollege on YouTube.) The following is her speech.
One of the main things impressed upon me while I was a student at Rosedale is what it means to live a life in the Kingdom of God. While we discussed these things in chapels, classes, and discipleship groups, I found where the “rubber met the road,” so to speak, was in the lives of the faculty and staff.
When you see the president of your college wiping tables down in the cafeteria after a special event, you might be at Rosedale.
When class ended a half hour ago, but you’re still in the classroom with the professor and a small remnant of students continuing a discussion, you might be at Rosedale.
When you walk into the student center and see the Dean of Students surrounded by a group of students, talking about calling and purpose, you might be at Rosedale.
When you go into the financial aid office to discuss tuition, and leave having poured out your life struggles, you might be at Rosedale.
When you pass the man who does the campus maintenance driving the Gator to his next project, only to have him turn around to tell you an encouraging word, you might be at Rosedale.
Rosedale opened up avenues of thought that pushed me deeper in my understanding of who God is.
“Love is patient, kind. It does not envy, boast, is not proud. It doesn’t dishonor others, is not self-seeking, is not easily angered, and keeps no record of wrongs. Love doesn’t delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
Over the past two years I have gotten to experience love in a profound way. I remember sitting in my dorm room one of the first days on Rosedale’s campus and asking God why he brought me here. I wanted to know God and experience him. But I was afraid that with academic rigor and learning, I would lose the intimacy I had with him. I feared I’d become a doubter and a cynic. However, Rosedale opened up avenues of thought that pushed me deeper in my understanding of who God is and what it means to walk with him.
Specifically, I was shown what it looks like to be a part of the Kingdom of God. 1 John 3:16 states, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.” We, who are a part of the Kingdom of God, are called to walk in the way of our King Jesus, a way marked by sacrificial love.
Rosedale is a geographic location, but it’s made up of brothers and sisters who are a part of a kingdom not bound by geography. All of us today who are a part of this Kingdom have a role to play in it, one walked out in love. We students will leave Rosedale. Our lives that converged for one, two, maybe even three years, will separate.
But we will never leave the Kingdom of God. Wherever we go and are, whether it’s Traverse City, Michigan; Salisbury, Pennsylvania; Hutchinson, Kansas; Plain City, Ohio; or somewhere else in this grand world, we will be able to find other brothers and sisters to work beside in love. You may be sitting next to them right now. All of us who are taking part in this celebration today and are a part of the Kingdom of God, are called to live lives patterned after Jesus, lives lived in sacrificial love.
Therefore, as the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow so eloquently admonished:
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
