This is the season of graduations! You probably have someone graduating in your family and we have had many graduations in our extended family in the US, in Canada, in Ecuador and in Spain! It is a joy to celebrate these accomplishments, especially when we look back at how each one has grown in many ways. But it also makes us wonder what God has next for them and where they will invest their life and the blessings God has given them. What is worth our time and energy? What are the goals, desires and commitments that drive us and motivate us? How will we be successful and how do we even define success?
These are the questions that set the course of our life and either provide a stable foundation or an endless search for identity and purpose. Education can contribute positively to this in many ways:
Christian school leaders and Christian school teachers, while being responsible to teach Christianly, are also in the process of growth and learning themselves. We remind ourselves of the real source of our problems each day, our own sin. We remind ourselves of the actual solution each day, a surrender and a commitment to Christ and His purposes in the world. The hope of Christ-centered education is not in education as the solution, but rather in Christ as the solution and in education as a process to knowing Him and engaging effectively in His world.
I'm reminded of Christ's words in John 7:37-38.
"If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.'"
We will never be satisfied with education that does not lead us to Christ. He is the only One who can satisfy our longing and actually provide for our most desperate and deepest need.
Paul Madsen is a husband, father, teacher and learner who has lived in 4 countries and many cultural contexts. He has taught in Christian schools in the US and abroad for many years. He now works as an educational consultant with ACSI Europe developing professional resources, providing training for both teachers and students and directing the annual Student Leadership Conference. He can be reached via email at paul_madsen@acsi.org.