The Power of Our Patterns at Our Christian School

It has been a joy this fall to be able to see at-school classrooms active again. I stayed for a classroom prayer recently, during which a long-ago-memory of my toddler nephew came to mind. He was keen to follow the pattern of his older siblings in reciting:

“God is good, God is great

Let us thank Him for our food.

By his hands, we are fed,

Thank-you Lord, for daily bread. Amen”

Unable to say or understand the words spoken by his siblings, his exuberant version went as follows:

God is great, God is great!

God is great, God is great!

God is great, God is great!

God is great, God is great! Amen!

In his mind, he was participating just as equally as his siblings. Perhaps his rhythmically perfect version contained as much meaning and purpose as his siblings well-practiced versions. The repeated prayer became like were well-worn grooves in their minds and hearts, reminding them of the gift of food by God’s provision.

I’ve noticed that patterns and habits fall off easily
in our COVID confusion as we find ourselves in unusual situations and perplexing decision pathways. In the middle of all of this, how do you instruct children to live faithfully? It strikes me that one of the loudest “voices” in cultivating faithfulness in young children are structures that gently, but deliberately guide them to recognize that God made them, God loves them, and God knows them “by name.” (Isa. 43:1) What a rich blessing that those “patterns of faithfulness” in even the smallest of things can start at home and continue here at LCES. Praise God for Christian education; may it bear fruit in the lives of our children!

SJ

Of COVID and Conflict At Our Christian School

 

Frequently my work as principal involves working with situations where conflict is present.  Sometimes the conflict centers around what is actually the truth, what is best in a given situation, what happened, or what didn’t. Conflict reveals a lot about situations and people.  Jesus challenged his listeners that “…the mouth speaks about what overflows from the heart.” (Matthew 12:34)

Conflict doesn’t sit well with most people. In many ways, we have become a polarized society struggling to love those who we don’t agree with. Conflict makes us uncomfortable, restless, and often drains energy and emotion if it drags on too long in unproductive ways. On the contrary, harmony and synergy enjoyed around God’s love and his purpose for us motivates, energizes, and sustains us. But it is hard to get there.

In several places and by different means I’ve been reminded in the last number of weeks that shalom isn’t simply the absence of conflict. Peace, understood as the absence of conflict, falls short as a complete definition. Shalom is best understood to be the complete fullness of “all things are as they should be, as God created them.” Shalom is the deep satisfaction of understanding and experiencing everything God made as he originally intended it. COVID makes me desire that even more.

St. Augustine once summarized this tension this way: “Our heart is restless until it finds rest in You.” I’ve always thought that to be a challenging summary of what we do in Christian education. We challenge our students with the world they live in and make them restless and uncomfortable in accepting it as is. We seek to instill in them a hunger for shalom in God’s coming kingdom – the world restored and renewed.  This is what we aspire to do every day at LCES – shaping hearts, souls, and minds.

SJ

A Joyful Start To A Unique Year

JK Adventures on "Lava"

Words don’t really describe how good it feels for us to have students walking the halls again. The building feels more aligned with our school’s core purpose today: educating children, equipping them for a life of faithful, Christian discipleship. While there are all sorts of new things that we need to get used to doing differently, we have started with the assurance this morning that God is our refuge and strength, and that God’s claim on us is so much larger than COVID’s. We are eager to be safe, and at the same time not to have COVID author every part of this year. God’s world is still a place to discover and enjoy. We are still called to love, learn, and growth in wisdom as we serve one another.

“The joy of the Lord is [our] strength.” Nehemiah 8:10 

At the launch of remote learning in March, I mentioned Psalm 137 as a lament of the Jewish people taken away from the land God gave them. Thy were exiled to Babylon against their will. Our theme this year (above) comes from the return of God’s people back to the land God gave them. Nehemiah and Ezra spoke to the people and helped them understand the times. I am sure they were overwhelmed with rebuilding structures, reawakening patterns of faithful living, and adjusting to things that seemed new and overwhelming to them. Nehemiah urges them not grieve their situation or their past sins, but rather to rejoice and delight in the goodness of God’s faithfulness. 

That’s our task too; delight in the unshakable faithfulness of the Lord even as nations are in uproar and our footing gets shaky. (Psalm 46) Even though what was as solid as the mountains in our lives falls into the heart of a sea of what can feel like chaos, we are reminded God tells us to “be still” and know he is God. 

That assurance is the very best back-to-school supply we have this year. 

SJ