HEARTS OF GRATITUDE

November 2022

As we collectively enter this season of Thanksgiving, wherein we point our gratitude toward our Maker, I would encourage you to consider a few things: ‘enoughness,’ source-thinking, and action. 

Enoughness is the concept of identifying exactly what is enough for you. What is it that truly satisfies? Name it, identify the relationship that enlivens the experience on this earth, and firmly commit to that relationship. Prioritize it above all else, not to the exclusion of everything else, but so that everything else might have its proper place in life. 

Source-thinking is the concept of looking behind the curtain. At my house, we usually go around the table and people say what they’re thankful for. It is, understandably, fairly surface because we’re usually very ready to eat at that point! Family, friends, food. All of this is true. However, true gratitude comes to our heart when we get beneath the surface and ask, “Why?” Why is this person, relationship, or material blessing something for which I am grateful? When we begin to answer the “why” question, we see our motives and the true blessings we experience.

Action. Once we’ve identified the relationships that mean the most, this knowledge should lead to action. Express gratitude to that person. Specifically and in detail. This exercise will actually benefit you more than that person, but that’s not the point. This one action can lead to others, like a spark can start a brush fire of gratitude and lift up the whole community. 

These are some simple things we can do this Thanksgiving that will brighten our hearts and the hearts of those around us, all in service to the King of Kings, as we seek to glorify Him with our every thought and deed. We don’t do these actions to make our lives easier, but to make Him known. These demonstrations of love are the way in which the world will know we are His disciples (John 13:35). 

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving break and may we all experience the joy that this holiday is intended to bring.

October 2022

We did an interesting activity in parent meetings this week, where each person was asked to choose a picture that described what Norfolk Christian meant to them from a group of random objects. The stories were sometimes amusing but often quite powerful. One parent chose a key, to show the confidence her child’s teachers have unlocked by encouraging his ideas. Another chose a carabiner, because no matter where her children go, they are attached to and supported by the loving NCS community. One mom selected a card with multiple objects, in appreciation of the ways her four children, all with very different personalities and learning styles, have been uniquely loved, cared for and challenged.  

In choosing my own card, I was immediately drawn to the picture of train tracks, for two reasons. First, Proverbs 22:6 has been a foundational verse in my life, as both a parent and a Christian educator: “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” This is one of the promises we stand on as we partner with you to nurture Christ-centered children and young adults. 

The second reason I chose train tracks recalls my youth growing up in the farmland of Western Pennsylvania. Dirt lanes were common, so I grew up driving to locations with no lane markings. The only things drivers had to guide them were the tracks created by other cars that had traveled the road before them. Those well-worn ruts were what kept cars and people safe on bumpy, unpredictable ground. Of course, every teenage boy had the same idea at some point, of blazing his own trail outside of the smooth path created by other cars. It didn’t take long for most of us to learn that venturing over the sides of those tracks was not easy or pleasant, (especially for the undercarriage!); the steep boundaries worn into the path would quickly jar you right back to the smooth terrain you were hoping to leave.

This is really what we do here at Norfolk Christian. In training our students to understand God’s Word and how He wants us to live, we are creating that well-worn path that will guide them as they travel through the uncertain terrain of life. Countless teachers, coaches, mentors, and parents have driven the path ahead of them, etching those boundaries into an otherwise turbulent landscape. And while some of our Ambassadors will faithfully stick to the smooth tracks, others will want to experience life outside of them. When they start to veer away from the straight and narrow, our prayer is that the ruts we’ve built into their lives will push them back to the safety of God’s Truth. 

During the picture activity I spoke of earlier, one of our directors chose the photo of a plastic monkey from a Barrel of Monkeys game. He explained that, to him, Norfolk Christian is a place where our community – from students to staff to alumni to parents and families – is linked arm and arm, held together by Jesus Christ, and all striving for the common purpose of molding young Ambassadors who will serve Him as they go into the world.

This is why we exist–to equip Ambassadors for Christ, by laying the groundwork within community that will guide them as they face unseen and unexpected challenges. Thank you for your partnership in this mission!

PURSUING TRANSFORMATION

August 2022

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Romans 12:2

In his book All In, Mark Batterson talks about “The Inverted Gospel.” He contends that many Christians believe they’re following Christ, they want and mean to be following Jesus, but in reality, they have invited Jesus to follow them. They may have invited Him to be their Savior, but they haven’t allowed Him to be the Lord of their lives. 

This year, our school-wide theme is “Transformed.” In digging into it over the past two months, I’ve realized why Christians struggle with big concepts like this one, myself included. Our nature is to look for the formula. We want the Bible to give us the x + y so we can do those, get to z, and check that spiritual maturity item off our lists. Don’t do this, check. Do this, check. And the longer our list gets, the more accomplished we feel. 

Transformation, however, doesn’t fit that mold. In fact, the more we study the Biblical idea of transformation, the more helpless we tend to feel. Paul gives us two ‘action items’ for being transformed and not conforming to the patterns of this world.  One, renew our minds. The word here for renew actually means a complete change for the better. A total renovation of our old minds. That’s intimidating. We can work toward it, but how will we know when we’ve achieved it? Is it even possible?

The second is in our companion verse for this theme, II Corinthians 3:18:

“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

So Paul is saying all we have to do is, uh, what? And suddenly, we are faced with the main tension of the Christian life: the more we seek to make ourselves better Christians, the more we wander from what God is actually asking of us. As we try to be obedient and plot this path to transformation, we become increasingly uncomfortable. Because the truth of being transformed is this: we can’t make it happen. We can’t renew our own minds. We can’t transform our own lives. There’s no simple x + y that will take us to a tidy checkmark.

Thankfully, this is where the incredible grace of our Heavenly Father comes in – He’s not asking us to do it. In fact, the only way transformation will happen is when we realize this: Christ does all the work. Let me say it again. Christ. Does. All. The. Work. The veil reference in the verse above is to Moses, coming down from Mount Sinai. As he descended from being in the presence of our Holy God, his own face was so blindingly radiant that he had to cover it for the Israelites to even be around him. Yet this verse makes the sharp contrast between what Moses experienced and what we have available to us as New Testament Christians. Through Christ’s incomprehensible sacrifice for us on the cross, the veil that separated us from God’s glory is now removed. Christ Himself removed it, once and for all, and He is inviting us to gaze at His Glory. He is inviting us to allow the work that only “…comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” to happen in our lives.

This is how we are transformed.

In the next weeks and months, we will be unpacking what we can do to allow the Lord’s Glory to transform us; it’s still an active process that we choose to engage in. We can seek Him; we can immerse ourselves in His Word; we can take every matter to Him in prayer and ask His will in every situation, instead of deciding what He thinks is best and dragging Him along with us. We will be intentionally developing the spiritual disciplines that allow God to renew our minds and transform our hearts with your children of all ages in the coming year.  

As we do, my prayer is that our students will be awe-struck by a God Who loves them beyond understanding, a God Who has so much more for them than they could ever attain by ‘conforming to this world.’ I pray that, as Christians young and old, we will surrender to Christ’s work in our lives and stop trying to create the appearance of that work on our own. And I pray that as a community, we will shine so brightly from being in the presence of our Savior that all who look on us will know we belong to Him.