Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Peculiar?

Dear Friends, 

James K. A. Smith states that,  The primary goal of Christian education is the formation of a peculiar person – a people who desire the Kingdom of God and thus undertake their life’s expression of that desire.”  

What jumps out at you as you read the quote?  For me it is the word peculiar.    What does it mean to be peculiar?  What is the opposite of peculiar?  What would a peculiar high school student look like?  Is Unity a peculiar high school?  Am I peculiar?  Are you?

Is a Christ-follower called to be peculiar?  I think so.  Peculiar students and a peculiar school would let Christ lead in every aspect of their life, including the way we do school, co-curriculars, communicate, use our budget…. That is our aim at Unity. 

We hear stories of high schools elsewhere where peculiar makes the news.  Consider this story from Louisiana:

We do often see peculiar right in our own building.  This past week, one of our junior students attended a Career symposium at a local college.  This event was held for all of our area high schools.  Afterwards, this student wrote a peculiar response.  He wondered why the focus was on getting a job where you could make lots of money to buy lots of stuff.  What about choosing a career that would best serve God in His Kingdom? It was an impressive, peculiar response.   

How can we as parents in our homes, and teachers in our school create opportunities for our students/ children to be peculiar?   Becoming peculiar today might mean sticking with values and decisions things we took for granted 10 or 20 years ago.  Staying the course might make us peculiar.  But is there more?

Can peculiar increasingly be more a part of what we do at Unity? 

W. Dykstra