This week we started our fourth quarter at school. This year has moved along quickly, hasn’t it? Several students graduated early at the end of last term, but we added two dozen more this term. In a couple of weeks I hope to wrap up another edition of the yearbook and we’ll be setting up for prom, too. Deja vu. Teachers repeat parts of their lives over and over again. But if you look at it as an investment in others it’s worth it.
Last Saturday on Saint Patrick’s Day, our school took a group of students to Los Angeles to visit the Getty Museum and watch an L.A. Kings hockey game. It was a quality group that went and a fun trip for all. The goal of the event was to give students an opportunity to experience something they hadn’t before. Just like we did with the snow trip last year. Similarly, my son is on his way to the mountains right now to camp for the weekend in the Sierras with the Boy Scouts. He’s pretty excited for his first chance to be in the snow, have a snowball fight, build a snow cave, and go sledding.
New experiences broaden our horizons, increase our ability to learn, help us develop, and shape our character. I’m thankful to God for the opportunity he gives me each day for joy, hope, contentment, and improvement. We are all lost and broken children in need of salvation and healing which only our loving father, almighty God, can bring. He does so in a variety of ways including at times allowing us to suffer.
As I look to Easter, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus proclaim God’s ultimate sacrifice for my ultimate opportunity. Because Jesus died and rose again to save us anyone can experience abundant life with God today and forever. Because he loves us we can love him and those around us. Is there any greater opportunity than that? C.S. Lewis, a skeptic who became a Christian and wrote many influential books including the Chronicles of Narnia, once said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” By God’s grace I want to make the most of every opportunity to learn from him, to see with his eyes, to speak with his words, and to let him live through me to make the lives of others better–all to his glory.