Happy 70th Anniversary! On September 5, 2023, ACS will open its doors to students for a 70th time! What a testament to God’s enduring faithfulness.

Many of you know that myself and many of us in leadership at ACS are fond of a biblical liturgy recently introduced to us and helpful in leading our school through some of the challenges in the past few years. The liturgy “Praise, Lament, and Hope,” is brought to us by the Colossians Forum. This liturgy has been particularly helpful as we have navigated broader cultural challenges / issues in our community. Without abandoning both Praise and Lament, ACS has chosen to place an emphasis on Hope this year.

In the context of our 70th anniversary and where we aspire to be as a community, we feel this makes sense. There are many biblical references to the concept of Hope, as our God is a God that places great emphasis on Hope. We were particularly drawn to God’s relationship to the people of Israel in the Old Testament and landed on Psalm 130.

Verse 7 declares, “O Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for the Lord is unfailing love.”

As A Posture

Heading into the summer, I, like most of us, were tired, even exhausted. The last thing we were thinking about was Hope. I certainly didn’t have a hope-filled posture.

However, there is something interesting between God and Israel in Psalm 130. In the verses prior to our theme verse, there is a reference to watchmen who are watching over the city at night (an extraordinarily dangerous yet important job in biblical times). It says, “I will wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning.”

Hope has a significant relationship with waiting, with longing, and with a desiring for a “new dawn” like the watchmen. The watchmen are eager for the morning. They portray a kind of “edge of your seat” posture that is hopeful.

On the Edge of Your Seat

I find that a new school year always possesses some level of “edge-of-your-seat” hopefulness combined with a confident everlasting peace that we are a part of God’s ongoing and everlasting story. There are new classrooms, new faces in the classroom, new teachers, new learning spaces, new themes, new posters, and bulletin boards.

Yet there’s a confidence that the school will continue to deliver on its promises:  building lasting partnerships with parents to raise their children well and prepare their children for this world. To prepare amazing faith-filled men and women who understand the world and can have a faithful presence in it. 

When we’ve been teaching students for 70 years; there is even more of this confidence of this. Like the nation of Israel, we haven’t always gotten it right. And yet God is still our God and He is faithful. This gives us Hope!

So, let’s combine this posture of hope and this confidence of being a community for 70 years, and start this year well…and full of Hope!

As poet Amanda Gorman says:

Hope is something we must bestow,
Like a wick in a poet so it can grow
Light
Bringing with it stories we can re-write!