1. How (Not) To Change the World
Commencement Speech - Jona Eigege
Calvin College
May 23, 2015
Good afternoon:
I salute all of you and you should be proud to be a Calvin Knight and a member of the
Class of 2015. It is an honor to be given this opportunity to speak to you.
Allow me for a moment to speak on your behalf, as one of you…... from your
perspective…our perspective - into just a microcosm of the stories that make us who we
are, as the class of 2015.
I am a Goldwater Scholar. I am an academic All-American.
I am a budding socio-linguist, who has been published and recognized for my work.
I am intelligent. I am visionary.
I am a Calvin Knight.
I am a teacher, dedicated to mending the gaps in urban education, tackling head-on the
biggest civil rights issue in America today
I am convicted. I am unrelenting.
I am a Calvin Knight.
I am an international student who’s become adept in cross-cultural engagement. I even
learned how to play ultimate frisbee. (expect a pause here for laughter)
I am American but my skills have driven me to Jordan, to Romania, to Australia. .
I tackle local. I impact global.
I am a Calvin Knight!
I am a National Champion. I run Boston.
I am part of a team that will go down in history.
I may be quiet, but my pen packs a punch. My art enlightens. My voice reframes
narratives.
My songs speak truth.
I am gifted. I’m uplifting.
I am a Calvin Knight.
I am a father who left my high paying job in corporate America to follow my dream of
becoming a biologist.
I am that first-generation college student who many said would never graduate.
I’ve worked three jobs and maintained a 4.0 GPA
I am courageous. I am resilient.
I am a Calvin Knight.
My story has brought me from fleeing persecution in the mountains of Myanmar to
becoming the first female engineer at a firm. My story has taken me from a small town in
Michigan to drafting health care reform on Capitol Hill.
My story is phenomenal. My story is only beginning.
I am a Calvin Knight.
Friends,
it is true…...

2. Our stories are phenomenal. They are also only beginning.
And even though the combination of those factors is the reason why everyone in this
room is justified in their belief that we will change the world ---- it is also the reason, if we
aren’t careful and diligent, that we might not even come close to actualizing the change
we are well equipped to generate.
Here’s what I mean:
There is an unspoken problem associated with achieving so much and doing so well at
an early age.
We live in a society that values people for what they do, not who they are. It values
people for their perceived utility. As we step out into the real world, the sad truth is that in
many instances, our “importance” will be a function derived directly from how we add to
the bottomline……
Now, insert our class - our lists of crazy achievements, our resilience, our Calvin
education -- our track record of producing well beyond our years. Even if you don’t
consider yourself one of the best and brightest, let me assure you: you are set apart for
unique things. Great things.
And yet, there is no doubt about how society sees us - we are prime cogs for its
machine. And that’s all we are.
The real damage is done when we begin to see ourselves through those same lenses.
That mind shift eventually translates into a life shift.
The focus of our lives become ourselves, our dreams, our progress - instead of His
fame, His glory, His kingdom. That's the reason why certain achievements become,
mediocre - certain opportunities - not worth our time, certain relationships - not worth the
investment, and the process of truly engaging God’s world a hindrance to our dreams of
occupying the top rung on the ladder of “success”. We begin to focus on the things that
don’t matter. We buy into the narrative that when we produce enough to get to the top,
we will begin to create impact.
We get complacent as the work of renewing God’s kingdom - the work of changing the
world - goes on without us.
But this is not a complacency caused by our inadequacy. It is a complacency based on
this desire to “wait for the right conditions” …..the conditions that will bring about product
before we begin to act…...a complacency sourced in the infiltration of our psyche by the
narrative that we can’t contribute or make impact, unless we are where we always
thought we would be…..at the top.
This past semester, I took CHEM 101. And I have to say, science is not as bad as I
thought……
In early April, as we began to study chemical reactions, we learned about catalysts.

3. I really believe that’s what God call us to be in his work of renewing the world. We are
catalysts of the kingdom. What’s interesting about catalysts is that they are never
interested in product.ths are all about the reactants. If we truly want to be agents of
renewal in God’s world, we need to be about the process. This truth is evident when we
make the world our laboratory and examine this issue through the lens of history.
For Thomas Edison - the process was over 1000 iterations, altering his design
marginally every single time until he got his light bulb to work
For Rosa Parks - an unassuming seamstress - it was taking a seat on a bus - a simple
but principled act that defied the status quo of a bus system, and a city, but also a nation
divided.
For Nelson Mandela - the process was 50 years of struggle, 27 of them in solitary
confinement on an island far removed from the people and the cause he was advocating
for
None of these individuals set out to change the world. They just found the place where
their deepest passion and the world's deep need intersected, and committed their being
to the propagation of those processes. They could because it was never about them -
and even as people whom many expected great things from, they never succumbed to
the pressure to “prove their worth”…….Today we remember them as people who
changed the world. We remember them because of their dedication to the process.
Class of 2015, today especially, the process is our unfolding stories and many different
places where life is about to take us.
Realize that you are a part of something bigger than you. You are a part of God’s story.
Don’t get complacent. Don’t get comfortable. There is work to be done - and the time to
start is now!
I would like to close with an excerpt from a prayer written in honor of Archbishop Oscar
Romero, a Salvadorian priest who exemplified a “process-over-product” lifestyle …
“It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is
God’s work.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder
and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future that is not our own.”
Class of 2015, go into the world and do well….but most importantly go into the world and
do good!
Go into the world…..and as Christ’s catalysts for renewal, ….change it, for His Name’s
sake!
Thank you.