{"id":6742,"date":"2023-08-30T13:48:14","date_gmt":"2023-08-30T20:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/?p=6742"},"modified":"2023-08-30T17:24:03","modified_gmt":"2023-08-31T00:24:03","slug":"starting-full-of-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/2023\/08\/30\/starting-full-of-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"STARTING FULL OF HOPE"},"content":{"rendered":"

Happy 70th<\/sup> Anniversary! On September 5, 2023, ACS will open its doors to students for a 70th<\/sup> time! What a testament to God\u2019s enduring faithfulness.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cPraise, Lament, and Hope,\u201d 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<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the context of our 70th<\/sup> 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\u2019s relationship to the people of Israel in the Old Testament and landed on Psalm 130.<\/p>\n

Verse 7 declares, \u201cO Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for the Lord is unfailing love.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

As A Posture<\/h2>\n

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\u2019t have a hope-filled posture.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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, \u201cI will wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Hope has a significant relationship with waiting, with longing, and with a desiring for a \u201cnew dawn\u201d like the watchmen. The watchmen are eager for the morning. They portray a kind of \u201cedge of your seat\u201d posture that is hopeful.<\/p>\n

On the Edge of Your Seat<\/h2>\n

I find that a new school year always possesses some level of \u201cedge-of-your-seat\u201d hopefulness combined with a confident everlasting peace that we are a part of God\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Yet there\u2019s a confidence that the school will continue to deliver on its promises:\u00a0 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.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

When we\u2019ve been teaching students for 70 years; there is even more of this confidence of this. Like the nation of Israel, we haven\u2019t always gotten it right. And yet God is still our God and He is faithful. This gives us Hope!<\/p>\n

So, let\u2019s combine this posture of hope and this confidence of being a community for 70 years, and start this year well\u2026and full of Hope!<\/p>\n

As poet Amanda Gorman says:<\/p>\n

Hope is something we must bestow,
\nLike a wick in a poet so it can grow
\nLight
\nBringing with it stories we can re-write!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy 70th Anniversary! On September 5, 2023, ACS will open its doors to students for a 70th time! What a testament to God\u2019s 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 […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":6747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-6742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-school-vision"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6742"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=6742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}