It’s Admission Season, Time to Unlock the Doors to the Good Life
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I vividly remember my sixteenth Christmas. Like most 16-year-olds of my generation, I couldn’t wait to drive and experience the independence and freedom that owning a car would bestow on me. Because my family was of modest means, I was not expecting a shiny new sports car. I was only wishing for a car, any car.
When Christmas morning finally arrived, I bounded downstairs with eager anticipation, hoping to see a car in the driveway.
Nothing.
I was not utterly surprised, but I was profoundly disappointed.
Once everyone was downstairs and my parents had retrieved their badly needed cup of coffee, a prerequisite to opening presents, we proceeded with the Christmas ritual. After opening our gifts, I found myself, like Ralphie in A Christmas Story, appreciative of the presents I’d received but feeling a twinge of guilty disappointment deep within. I knew getting a car for Christmas was a long shot, but, as Alexander Pope wrote in An Essay on Man, “Hope springs eternal in the human breast.”1
While everyone inhaled warm, delightfully decadent cinnamon rolls fresh out of the oven and excitedly examined their new treasures, my father called to me. He pointed to a small box obscured by the thick Christmas tree skirt. “Barrett, it looks like we missed one. Go get it and see whose it is.” Assuming it was a small gift for one of my younger siblings, I rose slowly and meandered to the tree to retrieve the box. To my surprise, it was for me. Having abandoned the hope that a car was in the offing for Christmas, I opened it with nonchalant appreciation.
Keys!
With cautious excitement and feigned bewilderment, I asked what they were for. With the glow of parental joy on his face and a Christmas twinkle in his eye, my dad said, “Those are keys to your car.” “Where!?” I shrieked. He pointed out the living room bay window and directed my attention across the street. “It’s over there.” I rushed to the window to see my first car.
It wasn’t fancy, but it was mine. It represented freedom and the open road to the “good life.” My heart was bursting with excitement and gratitude. I rushed outside to inspect the “best Christmas present ever!”
Christian education is like those car keys; it unlocks the door to the “good life” and true freedom. It does this in three ways.
1. Christian Education Unlocks the Word of God for our Students to Build Their Lives On
Everybody wants a good life and happiness and to know that their lives have purpose and meaning. This is why the gift of a Christian education grounded in a biblical worldview is essential.
The key to finding happiness, meaning, and purpose and building a “good life” is to build it on the solid rock of God’s word (Matthew 7:24–27). Just like my dad handing me the beautifully wrapped box containing the keys to my first car, when we give students the gift of Christian education, we give them one of the most precious gifts they can receive: an understanding of themselves, the world, their place and purpose in it, and personal knowledge of their Creator and Redeemer.
It is a life worth living. It is a life filled with meaning, purpose, and usefulness. This is not the false freedom of the world that leads to intellectual and moral enslavement and chaos. This is a freedom that leads to wholeness and wholesomeness. As Jesus said, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31–32). Likewise, David points us to the blessing of building our lives upon God’s word.
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers (Psalm 1:1-3).
I cannot emphasize the importance of this enough. Our worldview shapes everything in our lives because our worldview determines how we think, our values, and our behaviors. It is the compass of life, the foundation upon which we build our lives, for good or bad.
To build one’s life upon God‘s word is to live a blessed life. As Dane C. Ortlund explains, to be blessed “is to move through life with a settled depth of happiness that comes from walking with God and enjoying his fatherly favor … [it] means to live the human life as it was meant to be lived. It is to enjoy a taste of Eden restored [emphasis added].”2
2. Christian Education Unlocks the Door to A Community of Caring Christian Professionals
Christian teachers, coaches, and staff care deeply about their students. They recognize that they are eternal souls, made in God’s image and of inestimable value. Christian educators are answering a calling, not pursuing a career. This changes the way they view students, teach them, and care for them. Christian educators embrace the truth that relationships are more important than rules and that without love, the teacher or coach merely makes noise.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal (1 Corinthians 13:1).
3. Christian Education Unlocks the Door to the Cultivation of Christian Character
We are dedicated to cultivating Christ-like character and seizing every opportunity for life-on-life transformation. This commitment extends beyond academics, influencing every program and venue to ensure our students are spiritually equipped to serve Christ in college, career, church, and community.
Children can be given knowledge without wisdom, but wisdom is required to live a good life because wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 9:10-11). The fear of the Lord—taking him and his word seriously—regulates and shapes our character. Ultimately, character counts more than competence.
The news is filled with reports of highly competent people behaving badly and ruining their lives, the lives of others, and entire organizations. They did not lack knowledge; they lacked the wisdom that produces good character.
Our students need wisdom to live a good life. And the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.
The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death (Proverbs 14:27).
What does it mean to "fear of the lord"? To fear the Lord means to live as if God exists, and is who he says he is. It is to walk through life bowing to his kingship and remembering his gracious redemption. To fear the lord means to yield to his will and seek to walk in his ways as our gracious deliverer.3
Christian education gives our students the precious gift of answers to life’s most important questions and issues: why they are alive, the meaning and purpose of their lives, and how to live a life worth living.
Christian education gives them the foundation and pattern upon which to build a good life, a solid family, an impactful career, a healthy community, and our country for the glory and honor of Christ.
We give them the keys to a wholistic and wholesome life. And, a wholistic, wholesome life is a good life! Now, that is an education that matters now and for eternity!
Christian educators give the keys to the good life. It is a life-changing, noble calling and a precious gift to give.
To be a schoolmaster is next to being a king. Do you count it lowly employment to imbue the minds of the young with the things of Christ and the best of literature and return them to their homes, honest and virtuous persons? In the opinion of fools, it is a humble task, but in fact, it is the noblest of occupations. - Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536).
Christian education is one of the few beachheads where we can provide this generation the scaffolding around their hearts, minds, and souls that enables them to become resilient disciples of Christ. There are not enough hours to do it in the church alone- David Kinnaman, CEO, Barna Group
Pope, Alexander. An Essay on Man (p. 8). Kindle Edition.
Dane C. Ortlund. 2021. In the Lord I Take Refuge: 150 Daily Devotions through the Psalms, Psalm 128. Crossway.
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