As many of us know, tis the season for graduations.  Across the country and the rest of the world as well, thousands and millions of students are graduating from the institutions in which they have spent, depending on their program, two, four, even ten years.  It's a big moment.

     And with these graduations come the speakers.  Some are famous, some are not.  Regardless, the themes remain the same:  do good, set goals, embrace challenge, take hold of what is before you, change the world.  And why not?  These graduates are poised to step into new lives, equipped, they--and we--hope, to make a difference on the planet.
     What about humility?  In a book I wrote a number of years ago (Thinking about God:  Reflections on a Considered Life), I noted that humility is, basically, a sense of place.  Amidst the commemorative bacchanalia and institutional glory, what will matter most in these times is the degree to which these graduates recognize their place in the world, that they are ultimately no different than anyone else.  Whether they are grandly inspired or driven, they remain people who are inherently human, inseparably connected to all things.
    And God.  We are drops in a vast ocean of humanity, an ocean in an even vaster cosmos, a cosmos in an even vaster, indeed, infinite, God.  We cannot escape the marvel--and insignificance--of our place.
     Change yourself, graduates, change the world.  And find your truest place:  step into God.