Dear Parents and Friends of CCS,
I hope this edition of Parent News finds you experiencing the peace and power of God in your life!
We are in the “home stretch” of the year, the 4th nine weeks. Now is the time to focus on finishing well, of bringing our best effort to the table to enter the summer on a high note.
I mean this for us as parents and grandparents, as well as our students!
”Finishing well” looks different for different people, but I think it generally has some common characteristic principles:
1) Avoid the tendency to lose the battle with despair, that feeling that says ”I’ll never catch up”. That feeling is actually very commonplace, even among high achievers—it's just that they do something different with that feeling of being overwhelmed. They use it as fuel, as motivation to not give up, to “eat the elephant one bite at a time.” Things are rarely as grim as they appear on the night before a big presentation or event you’re in charge of! The trick is to not get into that position in the first place—but if you do, don’t give up.
2) Don’t beat yourself about how you got into this place. Acknowledge it, own your part in it, seek forgiveness if you’ve wronged someone (even from yourself) but don’t wallow in the negative feelings. It doesn’t help, and actually can make things much worse.
3) As you’re working through #3, be honest about your role in the situation. If you are way behind in your work, maybe you’ve been lazy, or unorganized, or overly distracted, and you just need to admit it and stop blaming others. Now’s the time to correct those things to the extent you can—but it begins with admitting that you have responsibility in the situation, and generally are the person most responsible for the solution.
4) Remember that as a follower of Jesus you have amazing resources at your disposal to live the abundant life that God has laid out for you. (John 10:10). Yet this too requires being honest with yourself and humbly approaching God as your Heavenly Father who loves you unconditionally and wants you to flourish, even in the midst of trials and suffering. Faith in Jesus includes believing in His daily presence in your life, “right in the same room” with you, shaping things in accordance with His good and perfect plan for your life (regardless how it might seem right now).
“Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would
draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He
rewards those who seek Him.” Heb. 11:6 CSB
5) Be certain to set aside time to really thank God for getting you this far. Even if you are still short of who and where you want to be, He has sustained you, provided for you, and generally upheld you every step of the way—even when we have failed to do our part very well. He is with us not because of our excellent performance. He is with us because he loves us as His dear children, and he actually likes to be with us. And truthfully, the more we believe that and surrender to Him every day, staying rooted and grounded in the Word of God on a near daily basis and sensing the movement of Spirit of God in real time, the better off we will be—even if our immediate circumstances do not change.
I want to close with something I learned on a silent retreat that I had the privilege of taking over the break.
Many of our internal struggles, our doubts, our longings, our despair, our anxieties, our unmet desires, can be resolved best when we find a quiet place, open the word of God (the Psalms is a great place to begin this process), and let God’s words lead you into the silence. If you want the best effect, be sure to stay with it until it feels a little uncomfortable.
Jonathan Edwards, the great Puritan theologian and pastor who shaped and witnessed the first Great Awakening here in America in 1733-35 put it like this:
A sincere believer in Jesus Christ should…
“Endeavor to promote spiritual appetites by laying yourself in the way of allurement.”
That is, Edwards strongly advocated for the spiritual disciplines of Bible study and meditation, prayer and fellowship with like-minded believers, not merely as activities to be checked off a list, but as opportunities to experience spiritual pleasure and deepen one’s relationship with God.
And that, my friends, is not just helpful for getting through the 4th Quarter; it is an imperative for us in order to live the life Jesus died and rose again to provide for you and I.
May we have the courage and boldness and patience to sit with Jesus for a while, long enough to hear His voice through His word for us.
In this way, He will not only help us to survive these days of toil and trouble, but to enjoy them.
For CCS and the Kingdom,
Tom