STUDENT STORIES
Finding Sufficiency in Grace
Commencement Talk by Rebecca Li ’24, B.A., English
Grace and peace to you all,
The beauty of life framed by Westmont College is so extravagant, it causes you to forget about the restless device in your pocket. This abundance resides in the sunset-soaked surf and the bougainvillea and pickleball matches and Psalm 23 and playing spicy Uno in Athens and missing your bus in London and studying in the KSC and kneeling in a little prayer chapel at 3 a.m.
The totality of these good and beautiful things is a little staggering. You eventually discover, one or three or seven semesters in, that you are, in fact, finite; you can’t hold it all, know it all, do it all.
But Scripture offers a response fragrant with grace to the glaring reality of all that we leave undone. I’d like to draw attention to our class verse, found in the book of Zechariah 4:6, “Then he said to me, ‘This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.”
"But Scripture offers a response fragrant with grace to the glaring reality of all that we leave undone."
Unlike Zerubbabel, the class of 2024 hasn’t been busy rebuilding a temple, but sometimes the task at hand feels just as colossal. I know I’m not alone when I say that my time at Westmont stretched me more than I’d ever anticipated. This gaping chasm exists between who we are and who we’d like to be. We feel this dissonance so sharply — spiritually, academically, relationally, food-wise (as demonstrated by all the frozen Trader Joe’s meals crowding our kitchens). We mourn our lack of control over the hardship, illness, cruelty and unevenness within this fallen world.
Yet when we truly grasp our insufficiency, we can begin to receive the grace that suffices for us. In the following verse, Zechariah names this grace not once but twice. The comfort of the Holy Spirit shows up in glorious, tangible ways: the friend sitting still with us in grief, the family waiting patiently for our call, the professor putting a thousand tasks on hold to cook us dinner, the humble splendor of Santa Barbara that never seems to fade. These are the tiny graces that slope toward the right side of the whiteboard, that bolster us from day one to day last. When we walk at His pace, we find that we have time to honor the Sabbath, to play, to inhale and exhale. But if we rely on our might, our power, we miss out on witnessing the Spirit break forth into the miraculous mundane. All this glory and honor and praise ultimately belongs to Him.
Thank you, Jesus.
“Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty.”
Zechariah 4:6
2024 Class Verse