Not all journeys of discovery and learning require coursework and exams

SINCE the moment the school holidays began, the words “Back to School” have been plastered across shop windows casting a cloud over the six weeks of freedom from readin’, writin’ and ’rithmetic.

Now, as school buildings prepare to throw open their doors once again, those three words have become reality.

Across the Westcountry this weekend, I can guarantee that there will be frantic searches for lunch boxes, screams as parents discover that their children have grown out of their shoes (new at the start of the holidays) and despair as notes in the bottom of bags about “summer projects” are brought into the glare of daylight.

Those of us whose school days are far behind, looking on as our children try to organise their children, might feel we are safely beyond all this. However, before we get too complacent, it is worth reflecting on the way we are now encouraged to look on the whole of life as an opportunity for learning and growth. We are all, whatever our age, reminded that it is never too late to learn a new skill, enlarge our knowledge of the world and take up a course, whether at night school, online, or just doing our own research and study.

Christians will not find such an approach surprising. If we dare to call ourselves a disciple of Jesus, this is not a smug assertion that we have arrived in life and can now relax. Rather, it is a declaration that we have begun a journey to discover more of ourselves and the person we were created to be. It is a pilgrimage that does not promise smooth paths and an easy ride.

Instead, we have the assurance that we travel with our own personal tutor – Jesus himself – to urge us on, pick us up when we stumble, and gently nudge us on to the right path when we lose our way.

There is no course to sign up for and, because of the grace of God, no exam to pass at the end. All God asks are hearts and lives open to the possibility that there is yet more to discover.

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