Beginnings

Crafting the opening ceremony of the Olympics is not a job I aspire to. Just a little too much pressure and a creativity and a fair bit beyond my ‘get a pack of Tim Tams and vacuum the floor’ response to visitors. The role appears to be to create a spectacular that captures the core values and traditions of the host country and blends it with the ‘spirit’ of the Olympics – the celebration of the human form. And they are magnificent spectacles. 

As far as Opening Ceremonies go, however, I think Genesis still has a considerable edge – God’s extravagant launch of creation, showcasing what He values – a Heaven-Earth temple highlighting His creativity and showing what it looks like to live in relationship with Him.

The fact that I am writing about Beginnings in July is a fair summary of how I feel much of my life runs. And maybe we are all like this – there are so many things I would like to redo from the start with the knowledge I now have – the chief of these probably being parenting. Although having made that statement I suddenly feel quite tired.

Life would, it seems, be better if the path we hoped to tread was the trajectory we were launched on in the first place. Instead, it is littered with unpicking, do-overs, reverses, or even that experience where you want to get off the freeway but can’t find the exit and so feel compelled to keep going even when you know it is not the direction you hoped to travel.

Beginnings can make a significant statement about what is important. Interestingly, God’s other big beginning, the birth of Christ, takes a very different form – humility and vulnerability nestled under the chorus of angels.

Recently, I was challenged by the question of what is the ‘story of faith’ our students assemble as they observe our actions. And how do Beginnings (and endings and daily rhythms) contribute.

The context was practical - how do we, as teachers or leaders, start the school year or the term or the lesson and what signals do those Beginnings send about what we really value.

I could start a class with relational questions – how was your weekend? Or how did you go with your driver’s licence or that netball game? Or start with a prayer or an open-ended maths problem that engages thinking.

Or I could start by getting everyone to sit quietly whilst I mark the roll, collect homework and then start instruction.

Both beginnings help students form a narrative about what I value and what Christian education looks like. And both starts can frame the question for the students “is this what the next six months are going to be like?” 

Education (and possibly parenting?) is not really what we think we are doing, it is what the students are doing and what view of learning and the gospel are they forming as we teach and model and relate.

And next time I start my teaching career I will Begin Better...