Hope Academy is my framework

Abraham Norman (Class of 2014)
Abraham Norman delivered this address at the Commencement Exercises of the class of 2014 on Saturday, May 30, 2014. Abraham will be studying at Hillsdale College (MI) in the fall on a full-tuition scholarship.

My fellow classmates, friends and brothers and sisters in Christ, it is an honor to have the opportunity to address you today. I am so thankful that God has blessed me by placing each and every one of you in my life. We have the unique opportunity of being able to count each other as more than friends, but family.

There were times where we all were not as close as we are now. Times where it seemed we were constantly battling each other. But, we wouldn’t be able to consider ourselves true family if we never had conflict and overcame that conflict. By God’s grace throughout the years he has helped us to mend the relationships that were broken.

There are not many other senior classes in the world today that know each and every one of their classmates as well as each of us know one another. Not many others have had the opportunity to get the irreplaceable education we have received here at Hope either. To have a rich classical education immersed in Christ centered values. It is this that will make each one of us as an individual stand out in the world.

When a group of architects begin to construct a beautiful sky scraper, they don’t start with the top of the building or the interior of the building or the exterior of the building. The group of architects does not start with the weakest part of the sky scraper, but the strongest part.

The first item that is used to construct the building is the cornerstone.

But the cornerstone alone is not sufficient for a building. The next step in the process is building the framework.  If someone were to come and remove that framework of a sky scraper, it would come plummeting down into a heap of nothing.

Like the construction of a skyscraper, our time here at Hope Academy has been the construction of who we will all become as men and women of Christ.

Jesus Christ is our cornerstone — but Hope Academy is our framework.

Because of the education we have been able to receive her at Hope Academy we are prepared to go out into the world and face its numerous problems. Not to only just face the many problems the world throws at us but to face them, and conquer them.

But Hope Academy is not our framework just because of the education received here but most importantly because of the strong Christian faith that it instills in all of us. The reason that we are able to use our knowledge gained here at Hope to combat the worlds rising issues is because we have been rooted firmly in the word of God.

There will come times in the future for each one of us that others will try and knock us down. The world will cast its evils at us in hopes of causing us to come plummeting to the ground in a big heap of nothingness just like the sky scraper without a cornerstone or a framework. But ultimately the world will not succeed.

Our framework is Hope Academy and we are rooted in our unwavering faith in Jesus Christ. My charge for you today, my fellow classmates, is to go out into the world fearless and full of courage. To face the issues and problems in the world head on, unwavering. With the creator of the universe on our side there is nothing that cannot be overcome.

I would like to end with this. I am truly, truly blessed to have experienced this part of my life with you all. There is no other group of people in the world that I would have rather accomplished high school with. And listen when I say I love each and every one of you more than you know. I am so excited to see how the Lord uses us for his glory.

Now go out into the world and do great things. Illuminating the dark and bringing Christ to the world.