We have a tradition here at Veritas Academy of starting our school year off on the best path possible: with prayer, praises, and pondering of the Word of God...and bagpipes.
Okay, so the bagpipes may not fit in with the rest (but they are pretty great!), but it’s one way that our first day of school Convocation ceremony can be cemented in the memories of our students, parents, and teachers for the year to come.
We’ve got just over a week of school under our belt so far, so the school year is still very much just beginning. As such, it’s a good time to once again share the thoughts of our Convocation speaker this year, Rev. Nathaniel Stamper of St. Stephen’s Reformed Church in New Holland, who offered thoughtful words of comfort, advice, and warning in embarking on this journey called 2019-2020.
Here are excerpts from his message to our student body, faculty, and parents. May they encourage each of you as your families launch this new season and new school year.
Everything You Need
Rev. Nathaniel Stamper, St. Stephens Reformed Church, New Holland PA
I graduated from a local public school, and I didn’t become a Christian until I was a teenager later in high school. I never received formal education from a Christian worldview until later in my life, I wasn’t raised in the fear and admonition of the Lord. And I am sure you often hear how blessed you are to be in an institution that teaches from a Christian worldview.
From my experience, it was challenging to begin with a different worldview and to work backward, to having my worldview deconstructed and rebuilt, and amended as a young adult. It was a struggle to have my roof removed, to see that my thinking - and, therefore, my practices - were not in line with God’s Law.
Now, by saying this, by no means am I saying that you somehow have it easy. The Lord has called you to the demanding task of study and learning. For teachers, the Lord has called you to assist these students, to disciple them. For parents, the Lord has called you to raise them in the fear and admonition of the Lord. None of this is easy. But, I hope, by God’s grace, to offer you all three things today:
- a word of comfort
- a word of advice
- and a word of warning to help you begin this year well, and consecrate it to the Lord.
Comfort: God has given you everything you need for this school year
2 Peter 1:3-4 tells us “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to[c] his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.”
Peter, a close friend of Jesus and an Apostle, begins by telling us that God’s power has given us everything we need for life and godliness. God’s power is available to you in a specific way: through our knowledge of Him who called us.
Our honorable calling
Everyone has a calling. In fact, we have more than one calling. For instance, I am called to be a husband, a father, and to ministry. What are your callings? To be a student, a friend, to honor your parents and teachers. Or to be a parent, a husband, a wife, a teacher, a mentor, a coach, a headmaster.
Every calling or vocation has intrinsic value. There is no such thing as a “higher vocation.” Every vocation is from God and is an arena for obeying him. Whether you are called to be a mother or student, you are called to service from the Lord himself, just as a minister is called to a specific service. So it’s vitally important for us to be faithful in our vocations.
For students, part of God’s calling for you this year is to grow in knowledge. You are to acquire the means to continue growing in knowledge - to pursue truth, beauty, and goodness within the context of a Christian worldview. And Peter said you are empowered by having an intimate knowledge that comes from knowing Christ as your Savior. So when you struggle this year - or parents and teachers, as you help your students walk through challenges - take comfort that God has given you everything that you need in your life for godliness in your calling.
And because God is glorious and excellent, he calls us to excellence in these callings. This may look different for each of us, according to the measure he has gifted you, but to the best of this ability, you pursue excellence in what you do.
The power to resist sin...and laziness
Also because of his glory and excellence, God has given us precious and very great promises, which are the means to make us more like God, or as Peter says sharing in the divine nature, by giving us the power to resist and escape our sinful desires. Our sinful desires threaten our vocations. Sinful desires threaten your commitment to excellence in being a student at Veritas, or your commitment to excellence in teaching at Veritas, or your commitment to excellence in parenting. Sinful desires threaten our faithfulness in our callings.
I don’t know if you heard about it, but there’s this condition called "senioritis". You get sort of lazy, and begin to give up. During my senior year of high school, I was on the wrestling team, and I began to give up my cardio training, so my endurance was starting to diminish. Then, during one particular wrestling match, I had run out of wind and began to stall. Mostly, I was giving up the match without allowing my opponent to pin me.
The father of another wrestler, who was paralyzed from the waist down, was sitting in a wheelchair at the very edge of the wrestling mat. He had a passion for the sport of wrestling, and he desired to be more involved in coaching and training future wrestlers but was unable to do so. And he shouted to me in the middle of my match: "Come on, Nathaniel, you’re giving up! You’re better than this!" And I realized, my laziness had let him down, had hurt my teammates, and looking back, it dishonored my Lord.
We’re called to excellence in everything that we do, and to do it for the Lord. Paul says "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men." And our sinful desire - our tendency - is to take short cuts. We run out of wind in our callings.
Yet, God gives has given us the power to fight laziness in our calling. God has given us the power to yield to those placed in authority over us in our calling. He has given us power for perseverance in our calling. We’re given power for life and godliness that results in being more like Jesus, in every way. So remember this word of comfort: God has given you everything you need for this school year.
Word of advice: Continue to grow this school year in everything you need
Because we have everything we need, Peter says, for this very reason, we must continue to grow in this power that is already given to us (2 Peter 1:5-8). We are to seek maturity, to grow in wisdom and knowledge, to strive to be more faithful in our lives and callings like Jesus. And this will prevent us from being ineffective and unfruitful for the Lord.
Make every effort, Peter says - in other words, do this in “earnestness,” "have zeal” in the coming school year about the responsibilities and opportunities ahead of you.
Practicing virtues
Peter then describes eight Christian virtues in our pursuit of maturity: faith, virtue (or excellence), knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love.
Now, virtues are essentially good moral habits, but those listed here are given to us by God through his Spirit. However, we learn and refine these virtues through our imitation of Christ. To have these virtues instilled into our hearts and character takes practice, so they become like second nature. The idea is that we grow to act virtuously almost without thinking about it.
How do we stop lying habitually? We make a practice of telling the truth. How do we develop good study habits? By disciplining ourselves through practicing good study habits. How do teachers and parents practice patience? By children trying their patience, and then they practice patient responses.
We cultivate these virtues through trials, routines, and practices, through the liturgies of our lives. Paul says that "suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." (Romans 5:3-5) Through God’s Spirit given to us, we practice godliness in our calling, then we have these virtues instilled, and then we grow.
How do we recognize and pursue truth, beauty, and goodness from a Christian worldview? By continually being taught the truth, then identifying what is good by determining whether its purpose and meaning align with God’s purpose and meaning revealed in his Law. And then, slowly, the beauties of this world that attract us we begin to filter through the Christian understanding of what is true and what is good.
By practicing the necessary skills now, virtues and good habits are slowly instilled into us, until they become second nature. It’s the process that the Holy Spirit works his Word into our hearts.
So you see, virtues, then, cannot only be instructed into our intellect but involve the changing of our affections. Notice Peter lists brotherly affection and love as the last two virtues. Love is a virtue that cannot only be taught, but must be practiced and disciplined into us. The Spirit grows a true love in us and stirs our affections. The Psalmist reflects this, saying:
"The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart." (Psalm 19:7-8a)
Part of our kids’ time in school here is to develop knowledge, yes; but also to develop their affections. Part of the reason I did not apply myself in K-12 (besides my sinful desires), was that my affections were not captured. Part of what students are doing here at school is developing good practices, what some have called liturgies.
The liturgies of our lives
And just as on the Lord’s day you have liturgies in the worship service, which are designed to stimulate your mind and stir your affections towards God, so are the liturgies or practices of your life.
The practices you begin now will eventually become second nature to you. Ask yourself: are the habits that you’re beginning now habits you wish to maintain later? But also, ask yourself how the habits you start now will formulate or influence your affections. There’s a lot of money going into researching how the liturgy of social media and smartphones are ordering our loves and affecting our minds.
So one of my exhortations to students today is to begin to practice what is healthy and virtuous now, because the liturgies of your life will shape your heart as well as influence your mind. As you grow in virtue, you’ll grow to find beauty in virtues, in God’s law and what is true and good in this world, and it will be a down payment towards your future. And that begins right now.
A Word of Warning: Don’t lose sight of this gift, that you have been given everything you need.
2 Peter 1:9 goes on to say "whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins."
Peter makes clear that there are people who know the Lord, who have everything they need, but their lives fail to produce this expected growth towards godliness. Their vocations are not characterized by faithfulness, by excellence, or self-control, or patience and perseverance, or growing knowledge, or having affections that align with what true, beautiful, and good.
And why is this the case?
Peter, now a spiritual ophthalmologist, says these Christians are so nearsighted that they’re blind, having forgotten that they have been cleansed from their past sins. That is to say, they are blind to the power and hope of the gospel for today. They are blind to see that they have been given everything they need for life and godliness.
Don’t lose sight of this gift that you have been given everything you need for this school year.
The overwhelming urgency of the present
How do we become nearsighted? Nearsightedness is when you’re unable to see things clearly unless they are relatively close. I think the picture Peter is painting is people who are only looking at the here and now, the urgency of the present. Perhaps this is person overwhelmed with a new school year, overwhelmed with the major responsibilities in one's life, overwhelmed with the thought of exams.
You only see what’s immediately in front of you because you’ve lost sight of God’s calling and his grander vision of excellence in his kingdom and the power he has given to you through the gospel. That he is with you and enables you to fulfill the call. And you need not lose sight of this, to become so nearsighted that you’re blind.
Christ has ultimately made this possible for us through honoring his own earthy vocation, to be obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. And he first calls us to himself by capturing our hearts through his Holy Spirit, bringing us into a proper relationship with him. When we remember this, and we keep in sight that he has given us everything we need for life and godliness (and this school year), then Peter says in verses 10-11:
"Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."
We invite you to visit Veritas Academy
Do you long to know that your child is in a school environment that not only affirms the gospel and equips your child with these spiritual tools, but also fervently pursues excellence in education? We invite you to come see Classical Christian Education in action at Veritas, where rigor mingles with joy, and a lifelong love of learning is cultivated through the lens of God's perfect truth.
