Human flourishing, however, does not happen in a vacuum; it does so within a context. Kipling wrote: If you can keep your head when all about you...

Insight for Teachers: "We all long for Eden, and we are constantly glimpsing it: our whole nature at its best and least corrupted, its gentlest and most human, is still soaked with the sense of exile.” -J.R.R. Tolkien

A prayer over you this week, teacher🙏. Benediction for Teachers: "Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." Hebrews 13:20-21 (NIV)

Lunch atop a Skyscraper, photograph by Corbis Images, 1932. Labor Day seems like a fitting occasion to consider what it means to build something that lasts. Generations of faculty, families, students, and staff, along with alumni and donors, have invested their time, talent, and treasure into their schools. It reminds me of the picture (above). I love this famous photo of ironworkers having lunch high above New York City. It captures something simple: big and enduring things

"Every great literature has always been allegorical--allegorical of some view of the whole universe. The lliad is only great because all life is a battle; the Odyssey because all life is a journey; the Book of Job because all life is a riddle." G. K. Chesterton. The Defendant. London: Brimley Johnson, 1901.

Remembered on the day 6/06. This is 606 from the Mennonite hymnal. Maybe the most famous of all 606's. One of my favorite Doxology renderings.

Recently, we welcomed several new faculty and staff. I created an acrostic for them. I think it applies to us all.