What School Keeps Teaching Me About Faith

I’ve been in school three times already this week, once to lead worship, once to walk through and see what they’re learning about and to help with the SATs that Year 5 are taking, and once to talk about governance and finance.

School and Church have much in common. Worship and learning are part of the Christian life, and governance and finance are necessary to manage the buildings, people and processes that support worship and learning. Worship draws us close to God, who opens our eyes to see the world differently. We want to learn about how it works. And our learning stirs us to give God honour and worship for the beautiful and wonderful complex world he has made. In this way, worship and learning are woven together.

In May and June, there will be eleven weddings in our group. Couples who have found love in and with one another. If they can learn together, learn how to live together well and how to adapt together to all that life throws at them, if they will look to God for help, they have a good chance of a successful marriage. At their wedding, they will thank God for his gift of one another to them, and they will thank him for the love they share. When they make promises to one another, it is a commitment that pleases God. So worship and learning are woven together at the start of their marriage, and if they continue to grow in learning and continue to bring God worship and thanks, this will help carry them through.

There are also four funerals already planned for May and June. At funerals we reflect on the uniqueness of each person’s character and the experiences of their lives, we give thanks to God that we have known them, and then we lean close to God for comfort because we will miss them. We ask questions about heaven and about the meaning of life, and we hope that the answer is that eternity is glorious and only just beyond our sight. We learn to trust in God who promised us life in all its fullness now on earth and eternally into his new creation. And so at funerals too, as we think about learning throughout life’s experiences, we bring our thanksgiving for that life.

In this world of snappy slogans and memes, short-cut answers to happiness or health, and three-point methods to change your life, it’s easy to be pulled away from the depth of real learning and quality relationships. It’s easy to think that there’s a formula for the perfect marriage, that science supersedes faith rather than complements it and that medicine will overcome death. It is easy to miss nuance, and time is short for deep conversation, so there’s a risk that opinion becomes fact, and that whoever speaks the most convincingly or is the most popular, gains the most support. I urge you to keep learning, to look for different perspectives, to speak to people who aren’t like you, but especially to look to the wisdom of God, which is found in the radical teaching of Jesus. And I urge you to keep worshipping, to give thanks for everything that is good and beautiful, true and lovely. As well as to keep running to God, who is as solid when things are going badly as when they are going well. Nearly every church in our group is open during the day if you’d like to wander in and enjoy the peace that you’ll find there, and take time to pray.

There is one last piece of learning from schools that I believe warrants repeating, and that is the acronym THINK. When speaking to others, THINK: Is it True, is it Helpful, is it Inspiring, is it Necessary, and is it Kind? Some lessons take a whole life-long to learn and, in a world that speaks opinions loudly, as though they were truth, without reference to kindness, more than ever, it is brave and counter-cultural to speak kindly, to say what is necessary, to use our words to inspire rather than tear down, and to be careful to share opinions not as truth but as our considered experience, eager to hear and learn from others’ considered experience. Let THINK be a lesson we return to over and over again until we get better and better at using our words for truth in a kind and inspiring way.

Perhaps what Jesus meant when he said that we needed to be more like children to understand and come into God’s Kingdom was that we need to be open to learning or teachable, humble and curious, and in awe of the world around us that God has made. I’m grateful my work takes me into schools so often to keep me reminded of this.

Every blessing,
Rebecca