The 2021 song of the same title by CeCe Winans starts this way:

I love You, Lord

For Your mercy never fails me

All my days, I've been held in Your hands

From the moment that I wake up

Until I lay my head

Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God

'Cause all my life You have been faithful

And all my life You have been so, so good

With every breath that I am able

Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God

This moving song is regularly part of our worship assemblies here at Donvale. We sang it at our Founders’ Day service last Friday – because it represents our heart as we come to worship as a community, mindful of God’s grace at all times, and how it manifests itself in the life of our community, and the lives of its members.

Our congregation last Friday pushed our occupancy of our Community Hub upper floor to its absolute limit. Student enrolment numbers this year exceed 1600, staffing sits a touch above 300 personnel, our guests – Founders, Life Members and our first day students exceeded 100. A handful of parents were able to squeeze in. The double court space was heaving with energy, unbridled joy and enthusiasm during our 50 minutes of formalities.

An edited and captioned video of the event will soon be available – we are conscious that there were at least another 2000 members of our community who we couldn’t fit in on the day.

So, rather than speak to the details of the day – and further disenfranchise those who missed out – let me spend a moment prompting us to prayer in response to the goodness of God (which was an unscripted but very obvious theme that emerged during the proceedings).

We thank God for His goodness – as it was (and is) seen in:

good friendships
interested and interesting teachers
the vision of those who went before us
the enthusiasm of our early families
the people who are part of our experiences of DCC each and every day
God’s provision of good spaces and excellent facilities – all in a beautiful bushland setting that continually reminds us that He is Creator
unexpected moments of generosity – sometimes from those we know, often from anonymous givers who just want to care for us
Christian education in all its fullness, experienced in classrooms every day at DCC
our staff, sharing their Christian testimony of God’s love as part of their teaching and caring mandate
our families, nurturing one another as Christ calls them, providing our children with a godly image of God’s people gathered together
and so much more than we can even recall.

Join me in giving thanks for God’s goodness – it never ends, it is for all of our life, it is constantly faithful, it is like a cup running over, chasing after each of us.

Shalom.

Principally Thinking

'Act justly, love kindness, and walk humbly with God'

Issue 2 · 21 Feb 2025

In this issue