Winter, if we can call it that in Queensland, has arrived, and the daylight hours are getting shorter, and the mornings are a bit colder. I park my car outside on the driveway so every morning I need to clear the condensation off the outside and the demist the fog from the inside windows before I can drive the car. It is a metaphor for how many students and staff feel at this time of the year! It is harder to get up in the morning and clear the fog to be able to do the school day as the assignments and exams loom large.
There are fun parts of the semester like You Belong Week, Mega Chapels and sporting carnivals. Then there is Week Nine of Term Two where all the exams and assignments are due! As students tick off some of these milestones, the sense of relief is palpable. While assignments are not many people’s favourite thing, working hard is good for us, and the sense of accomplishment and completion builds our capacity and confidence. Our prayer for students is that they will be able to calm their nerves and find the time and energy to do their best work.
It is tiring though, and the weariness of students and staff is growing. They are all counting down the assessment pieces and days until they can enjoy the mid-year break. Rest is important. The Bible speaks about the day-to-day issues we face, one of which is fatigue and weariness. One of the more confronting yet comforting passages in the Bible is found in 2 Corinthians 4:16, “Therefore do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day-by-day”. All of us become tired and weary but the encouragement of this verse is to ‘not lose heart’ as we are renewed day by day in Jesus. My prayer for each member of the school community, whether you can take time off work or not, is that you will be inwardly renewed over the mid-year break and maybe even have the outward ‘wasting away’ delayed a bit!
