Is your inbox piling up with emails from school? Too much information. too little time? Here’s just what you may need: our Lynden Christian High Remixed blog. In this space several times a week (we hope) we will post information, thoughts, musings, bits about where we are at as school and where we are going. So check us out. Let us know what you think.
The administration of Lynden Christian High Remixed: Becky Midboe, Chris Rast, and Clayton Libolt.
MUSINGS ON A PANDEMIC
First, the science. If you wonder what’s going on with this pandemic, watch this little video. Watch it now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgBla7RepXU.
Scary, huh? But in this building over this past week there has been lots of positive energy. We—teachers, staff, even principals—have been learning Schoology (our online learning platform), Zoom (video conferencing and teaching), and other programs that enable us to reach out to our students and, just as important, have our students reach out to us. More than this, we have been learning about learning: how do we teach in this new way? How do we make our classes not just okay but great? We’re working on it.
What this reminds me is that over against the power of the pandemic there is another power, a greater power, the power of God. When we think about the power and strength of God, we often think of God’s power as just like the powers of evil. Strength against strength. But to think in this way is to ignore the message of the cross of Jesus Christ.
What the cross teaches us is that God’s power looks nothing like the power of evil. God’s power looks like love. God’s power looks like sacrifice. God’s power looks like defeat. What’s rising up and what will defeat this pandemic are precisely those things, the power of God working in us.
What will defeat the pandemic is sacrificing a bit of our comfort and our usual ways of doing things to help others not get the disease. What will defeat the pandemic is loving each other, even when our love has to be expressed through phones and computers. What will defeat the pandemic is leaning into the truth of the cross.
In good times, we often forget the cross. We think that life goes from one triumph to another. We are like Peter when Jesus first announces in the gospel of Matthew that he has to go to Jerusalem to die. Peter says something like, “No, Lord, we are not going to die; we are going to win.” Jesus has to teach him that sometimes in God’s power winning looks like defeat, and victory looks like love.
So, here’s to love: the love of God for each of us, our love for each other, and our love for our school. May we in this pandemic learn what God’s power looks like and come out of this time stronger and wiser and better.
Clay Libolt
