The Most Important Thing

I get all caught up in my world and forget often about the most important thing. What is your most important thing? Stop, and answer that question before you go on reading.

This summer I heard from several sources about what should be my most important thing. And, I just watched a sixteen minute video clip from another blog that I beg each of you to watch. Click HERE to go to Jessica' story. What are you going to find there? Well, Jessica just died of cancer and made the video that you will watch for the purpose of being played after her death.

In that video you will hear her refer to the thing that is most important. In Grand Rapids, I also heard about the thing that is most important. And, that thing that is most important...to God and to each of us...is people! God loves people and so should we.

People are more important than any thing else. We always let things get in the way of loving people. Watch the video and make people the most important thing in your life; I am!

Absolute Reality

Today's generation gets their reality from every other place but what is real. What is real...I mean really real is the Lord Jesus. He has claimed to be "the way, the truth and the life." Has that claim been refuted?

I am observer of culture. The culture that I see is anti-reality and leading generations of people no where. TV, music, and movies all reflect a very narrow view of life, yet many people depend on these mediums as their only source for truth and reality. TV shows now allow vocabulary that was once taboo. Fathers are consistently portrayed as self-centered bumbling fools. Broken and fractured are the norms for many of the families presented...all leading to the way life should be lived, according to those in power. Evolution, liberalism, atheism and socialism are all incompatible with each other, yet you will find that these are the ideas for a better life of many who ascribe to the above notions.

Well, there is one problem...a consistent worldview. None of these can be lived out in a life consistently. We have let those who ascribe to this inconsistent worldview determine for us what is true and real. I maintain that Jesus Christ is the only reality that I know. A Christian worldview is the only worldview capable of being lived out consistently. I see no other consistent worldview out there.

The real way, the real truth and the real life is found in Jesus Christ. Science and philosophy are man's attempt at religion with out God. Look at today's culture and society, what do you think? Are we a better place now that we have put some of these evolutionary ideas into practice? I know my answer; what is yours?

Community and Education

In his book, Between Memory and Vision, Steven C. Vryhof writes about how important community is to education. Vryhof writes,

"Sociologists have become intrigued with the idea of functional community in the last few decades. James S. Coleman has suggested that a functional community is a community that enjoys value consistency, a shared understanding of what the world is about, what is important, and how the group should live, and intergenerational closure, the adult-child relationships and the opportunities to activate them. These characteristics allow for the successful transfer of the community's values."

Vryhof writes about the importance of community in the transmission of values because often the transmission of values "need not be explicit, and often isn't." He uses the example of seat belts in his family. He writes that his children put on their seat belts without thinking because that is what they always have done. Vryhof writes that his children do not sit and think about whether it is cool or good to put on seat belts...these just put them on when they get into the car. His point here is that children absorb many of their values this way.

Those who suggest that it is wrong or oppressive to impose a set of beliefs on children before they become adults are doing just what they protest...imposing a set of beliefs about beliefs on children. Children absorb values as children because it is their nature, and the place where they absorb many of these important values is the school.

A school, by virtue of being a learning community, instills values in children all day long. As Believers in Christ, we are commanded to instill our Lord's values in our children. It is one of the very first commands given to us: "be fruitful and multiply." The command is not just to have children, but to raise them in the ways of the Lord.

Vryhof writes that he has found that parents are increasingly turning to schools that are faith-based because they recognize the tremendous power of education. Parents choose faith-based schools because these schools are grounded in a value and belief system, a worldview and hire faculty who believe the same.

As you observe the world around you, please understand that your children will absorb values at a rapid pace. The school you choose for your children will drastically affect the values they absorb, and the values they absorb will affect who they are as adults. Can you afford not to send your children to a faith-based school? Blessings!

More Great Quotes

Here are two more great quotes from a WCA parent. Thanks Clint for contributing to The Great Quotes Collection!


The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.


The school of hard knocks provides a great education;
The tuition is high, but the lessons long remembered.

Clint Penner

Great Quotes from Calvin College

Here are two great quotes I obtained from our reading this past week. Enjoy!







Inscription on a church in Sussex, England, 1730

A vision without a task is but a dream;
a task without a vision is drudgery;
a vision with a task is the hope of the world.



Vaclav Havel

"We enjoy all the achievements of modern civilization, yet we do not know exatctly what to do with ourselves."

The Van Lunen Fellowship

This past week I was given the great honor of working with other administrators in what is known as the Van Lunen Fellows Program. We spent a week on the campus of Calvin College engaged in this program. Each day started with worship, as we sang songs, prayed and read responsively, in order to prepare for the day's journey. It was a battle for me as I had many heavy things competing in my mind for my attention.

As I walked into class my first day, I was startled...there sitting in my class was... my pastor from Huntsville? No, it could not be? But, it was...the glasses, the smile, and the hair all told me that it was my pastor! I soon learned it was not actually my pastor, but another fine gentleman who loved the Lord and desired to serve the Lord in Christian education.

We learned much from the program and learned much from each other. The Van Lunen Center has a big tent mentality when it comes to this program, and that mentality brings educators from many different denominations and demographics together for the sake of the gospel. We all learned the lesson that I have been learning this summer: there is so much on which to agree when we put our Lord first.

As I departed on Friday, I was ready to go home to begin the difficult process of deciding where to begin to apply the lessons learned. Each of us clearly understands that our tasks are difficult and often thankless, but our children...yes, our wonderful children are worth all the money, all the sweat, and all the pain for they are the future. Blessings to all!

Rain and Judgement

As I watched the rain fall from the sky today, I thought...beautiful rain. Then, I remembered that just last week it was raining, and I was not singing the same tune. Why? Well, because it was raining when I thought it should not be. What does rain have to do with judgement? Glad you asked!

As we strive to put into place a critical thinking component in our school, one of the issues I am concerned about is judgement. You see judgement is suppose to be at the very top of the ladder of thought. You memorize, comprehend, analyze, synthesize, apply, discern, discover and then judge. Today, too many start to think then jump right to judgement. Today too many in the world think by way of the short path of memorize, comprehend and judgment. This path can also be found inside of critical thinking. When one learns to think in a critical manner it will, by its nature, feed pride and ego, and, if not careful, one who is suppose to be a critical thinker can be found dwelling inside the same short path of the world.

In the same way that we have reduced our English language and vocabulary down to a manipulated resource for us to use to get our own way, we do the same with thinking. We think... because I know... this, and I have done... that, and I arrive... there...I therefore think this, and it must be truth. When, the reality is that it is a personal perception, at best. Now, I am not saying that personal perception can not be somewhat true because it can. But, personal perception can not be absolute Truth...ever. Absolute truth is Jesus Christ!

Personal perception can be the truest truth if one defines it according to our Lord. He, being Truth, states that when two or three gather in His name He is with them. He, being Truth, states that we are not to judge or we shall be judged. He, being Truth, states that we ought to be known by His mark...love. When truth flows through the filter of scripture and not out of the world then it is to be taken as truth.

As we prepare to teach our students to think critically, join me in praying that all of us, teachers, administration, parents and students would be protected from our own pride. That we would not be puffed up, but that we would, instead, be humbled and awed by our God who gave us our ability to think and discern.

Two Lessons

This past Sunday my family and I went to one of our favorite churches. We love this church because of its outstanding teaching and preaching. It was there that I learned the following two lessons:

Lesson One: The enemy is within, and it is unbelief.
All my selfish desires and worldly ways can be traced to the simple fact that I do not believe God.

Lesson Two: Find the source of your rage, and you will find your idols.
I am and will be an idol worshipper this side of heaven.

These two lessons added clarification to my study time in I Timothy this summer. As I read through the commands to watch over each other and persevere in the faith, I am convinced that the real issue we Christians face today is... each other. We are quicker to condemn, criticize, and gossip than we are to love, forgive and serve.

I believe this is so because of our unbelief and our idols. Both point back to our original problem...we want to be god because we do not believe God's promises, and we believe there are still other things that are more important than God.

If you doubt me take the following challenge: What type of response do you have to the term "submit" in the context of submitting to the one person you do not like or respect? Does your response align with the passage in Hebrews 13:17:19? When I was willing to be honest with myself I was very convicted by my unbelief in God for His provision of authority (I do not know everything; only God knows all things.) and His provision of promises fulfilled.

Praise Him for He is worthy of so much more than I have to offer!

Hello Aften!

I hope you are having a great time. Be safe. We will see you soon! Many blessings from all of us!