| Last weekend, I returned back to Orlando from a visit to Ohio and Pennsylvania. As a lover of the window seat, I sat for the entire 2-hour flight marveling at the wonders of all things above and below. Flying never grows old.
I don’t know about you, sunshine, but flying always offers me an opportunity to reflect.
How does this giant metal tube thrusting in the air actually work?
How amazing is God that He created the heavens and the earth and everything in and on it?
How small and insignificant am I relative to the grandeur of all things walking the earth?
I kind of camped out on this last thought, as I recalled an email that my cousin Tina sent me a few weeks ago during the height of college graduation season.
She sent me a link to the transcript of Abby Wambach’s 2018 commencement address at Barnard College. Wambach is a retired US Women’s Soccer champ and two-time Olympic gold medalist; I’d say she’s more than worthy of sharing some insight on the school of life.
I won’t go into the entire address, however I’d strongly recommend reading it. (Link below)
Wambach anchors her speech on a story, an incredible phenomenon of the wolves of Yellowstone National Park. It is perplexing and amazing and such a testimony of how everything has a perfect plan and divine design.
The summary is this:
Yellowstone was once teeming with wolves, which were seen as a nuisance.
Wolves were hunted and eradicated from within the park.
Over the course of 70 years, the entire ecosystem of the park changed.
Conservationists and other scientists fought to have wolves reintroduced wolves to the park in 1995.
Plant and animal habitats were improved and restored.
Wambach challenges the graduates to ponder the fact that what was once seen as a threat, actually turned out to be “the answer.”
Something that was deemed as annoying and a detriment was actually necessary for survival.
Since Barnard is an all-girls’ school, Wambach applies this idea to women being the answer–the “wolf” necessary to sustain life. While I am in agreement of the equality and empowerment of women, I had a few different take aways.
Loving and serving God is “the answer.”
We all have divinely-designed talents, gifts, and abilities to change systems.
Through love, we can heal.
Through our belief in Jesus, we have power to resurrect dead things.
Wambach continues her speech with four rules to live by.
Again, she makes many valid points and I encourage you to read the address, however, I simplified my own personal rules to live by:
Love and serve God.
Love and serve others.
What are the rules you live by, sunshine?
I’d love you to share them with me.
And if you don’t have your own yet, I’d love you to be part of our pack.
I hope this message speaks to you in some way, dear one. |
