Leave your hearts open to the possibility of discovering more on life’s journey

‘BACK to school”. Three little words that bring a wave of nervous apprehension to thousands (and that’s just the teachers). This weekend across the Westcountry there will be a frantic search for lunchboxes, a realisation that feet have grown over the last six weeks and the discovery of crumpled notes demanding the production of a fifty-page project on life as a galley slave to be handed in on the first day of term.

Those exempt from such stresses may want to sit back at this point happy your school days are behind you. However, before you get too complacent, it is worth reflecting on a shift that has taken place in recent years. In days gone by, the School Leaving Certificate was the mark of a transition to a better world in which you never had to do another exam unless you chose to and nobody would make you run around the muddy school field in freezing weather. But times have changed.

Now we are encouraged to view the whole of life as a potential learning arena. ‘Lifelong Learning’ is the mantra. The local libraries are full of leaflets encouraging us to take up a new sport, hobby or acquire new skills.

For the Christian, this is no surprise. To call yourself a disciple of Jesus is not a smug assertion that we have arrived. It is a declaration that you have begun a journey to discover more about yourself and the person you were created to be. It is a pilgrimage promising no easy ride but the assurance that we travel with our own personal tutor – Jesus Christ. He is there to pick us up when we stumble and gently nudge us further on the way he has planned for us. There is no course to sign up for and no exam at the end. All God asks are hearts and lives open to the possibility there is yet more to discover.

As the new term begins, are we ready to be lifelong learners with the greatest teacher of them all?

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