Joshua's Founders Day Benediction at NMH

Who am I? Who are you?

These are the questions that we ask ourselves everyday as we try to
discover our place -- not only in our own individual, personal
worlds, but also in the vast emptiness of the silent universe that
surrounds us.

There have been times during this school year when I have found
myself laying awake in the night discussing with my roommate our
feelings of insignificance, while attempting to discover our place
in this infinite, spacious and, at times, lonely universe.

Looking beyond our comfort zone on earth, we begin realize that,
even collectively, human beings are like a single grain of sand on a
vast astronomical sea.

However, our limited presence in this world this does not stop any
of us from trying to reach out and ennoble the world around us -- to
push out of our comfort zone. This is an idea that D.L Moody sought
to instill into each of the pupils who have walked through these
precious NMH doors.

Our desire to reach out of our comfort zone is one of the core
lessons that gives us the confidence to explore the world around us
and within ourselves.

Fifty-five years ago two young men, a Nepali-Tibetan and a New
Zealander, Tenzing Norgay and Ed Hillary, climbed Mt. Everest, a
mountain believed to be insurmountable. But with their innate self-
confidence and a desire to go beyond the comfort of their places on
earth, they climbed to the highest point in the world, proving that
even a daunting challenge, such as Everest (or Sagarmartha, as the
Nepalis call her), can be conquered by the human spirit.

Tenzing Norgay declared that standing atop Everest was one of his
most fulfilling moments of his life, proving how rewarding an
experience can come from reaching beyond the comfort zone in which
you live.

Therefore, I would like to dedicate this moment of silence not for
the person by your side, or a friend halfway across the world, but
for yourself.

In the quiet of this passing moment, I want you to concentrate on
one of your most treasured comfort zones and, in the privacy of your
thoughts, explore the possibility of breaking it, of going further
and better than you ever have before.

I ask you try to imagine conquering your very own personal Everest.

Let us now be silent.