Rockbridge Academy Blog
Posts Tagged "affections"
A Part of Our Rockbridge DNA: A Reflection on Faculty Morning Prayer
October 10, 2024
As students come into the building each morning, they hear a strange sound echoing throughout the hallways. It's an unfamiliar sound in schools and buildings to be happening at 7:30 in the morning: sometimes louder, sometimes softer, and sometimes a higher or lower pitch. And then it abruptly stops about three minutes later. The sound comes from Mrs. Kennedy's Physics classroom. But the students hear it every day, so they no longer raise their eyebrows and ears to figure out what it is. It's completely normal to them.
What the students hear each morning is the sound of their teachers singing a hymn a cappella. Since the door is left ajar, the sound travels. From the entrance of the school, you can just make out murmurs set to pitch; as students walk further into the building, the words become more recognizable. School hasn't started yet, so students are unloading book bags and already nibbling away at their lunches, casually hanging out with friends with heels up on their locker doors. To them, hearing adult men and women singing full voice is not strange to them. It's just what their teachers do.
#87: Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty! / Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee; / Holy, Holy, Holy, merciful and mighty! / God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!
Each morning the Rockbridge faculty and staff gather together to sing a hymn and pray together for our students, families, and alumni. This is absolutely one of my favorite things we do. Here's how we do it.
When the bell rings at 7:30, someone picks out a number from a blue Trinity Hymnal. We've all picked one up from a bookrack as we've entered, so we're ready. It's a bonus when we're accompanied by a piano or a flute, but we're normally a cappella. Some of us try to sing harmonies—others succeed. And if it’s one of those hymns with the extra verses written beneath the final music staff, we sing all the extras too.
The collection of blue Trinity Hymnals with a solitary gold cross on the front have been gifted to us from various churches as they have updated to the newer red hymnals of the same design. Inside the front cover are stamps of the names of the donating churches. That our hymnals which allow us to sing together do not all come from one church but from several reminds me of the fellowship of families which belong to a myriad of church congregations and denominations but come together to form one Rockbridge. The Trinity Hymnal has been a new hymnal to me, but it has nearly all of my favorites.
#122: O ye heights of heav'n, adore him; / Angel hosts, his praises sing; / All dominions, bow before him, / And extol our God and King.
That our hymnals which allow us to sing together do not all come from one church but from several reminds me of the fellowship of families which belong to a myriad of church congregations and denominations but come together to form one Rockbridge.
After singing, we pray for current Rockbridge families and for alumni, selecting about five or six families each day. There's even a binder labeled "STAFF MORNING PRAYER LIST" to make sure we don't miss anyone, moving alphabetically through a roster of family names throughout the year. If you are an alumni, please know that we still pray for you by name. Your teachers delight in remembering you. For current families, please know that we pray for your entire household by name. As an Upper School teacher, praying for Grammar School students is how I have come to know the students who will one day be in my classroom.
If you are an alumni, please know that we still pray for you by name. Your teachers delight in remembering you.
We also take prayer requests for the faculty and staff for the day. It is here that we have shared in some of the greatest joys in each other's lives while also lamenting the greatest of sorrows. In a way, to pray for someone is to truly know them because it is to properly see them, their joy, or their sorrow in relation to God's ever-present care. Similarly, to be prayed for is to be known. It has meant so much to me on the days when I have asked my colleagues to pray with and for me.
It is here that we have shared in some of the greatest joys in each other's lives while also lamenting the greatest of sorrows.
The hymn, the prayer requests, the fellowship of prayer. This all happens in about ten minutes. And I'm so glad it does. It would be so natural to start the day together but to do so merely for the sake of making announcements and reminders about the day. And while we do sometimes have those, the focus is on preparing our hearts for the people and the learning of that day. As the school begins to be filled with students, it is also filled with prayer asking God to guide, to protect, to nurture our students.
I wanted to know when this rhythm began and how it had evolved, so I went about asking those teachers who were starting school days fifteen, twenty, or twenty-nine (!) years ago. All of them said the same thing: it’s one of those things that everyone remembers doing but doesn’t remember when or how it started. It struck me that singing to God and praying to him are just a part of the DNA of Rockbridge. Just as we don't remember learning to brush our teeth or how to tie a knot, at Rockbridge we sing to God and pray to him because it is part of the fabric of who we are.
#492: Take my voice, and let me sing, / Always, only, for my King. / Take my lips, and let them be / Filled with messages from thee.
It struck me that singing to God and praying to him are just a part of the DNA of Rockbridge. Just as we don't remember learning to brush our teeth or how to tie a knot, at Rockbridge we sing to God and pray to him because it is part of the fabric of who we are.
Posted in
School Culture
From Smart Phone to Wise Phone
February 22, 2024
So recently, I plucked out my eyeball. No, not literally. But for some in the modern world, it might seem like that’s what happened. What I actually did was remove all access to the internet and social media apps from my phone. Why on earth would a totally sane person do such a thing? Some might even suggest that to take such actions demonstrates a lack of sanity. However, this was done after very careful consideration.
I have noticed that over the past few years of my smartphone ownership that certain habits have developed, that while not necessarily sinful, are certainly a choosing of what Scripture might call the “non-beneficial.” I noticed that my ability to read a book, especially an arduous work of theology, had significantly declined. I see a tendency in myself to choose the easy, trivial, and quickly satisfying path over the challenging, truly nourishing, and profitable one. These habits all developed around the way I was using my cell phone. In light of these observations, I realized that something needed to change.
But what could I do? I clearly need my cell phone and the access to information that it provides. I needed to be able to watch those Youtube shorts. I needed to be able to give a thumbs up to my friends' pictures of current meals under consumption. The most up-to-date information on MLB box scores must be immediately available to me. I had to have a gateway to hot-off-the-presses news stories. To not have the availability of such things in this modern world is tantamount to being physically disabled!
As I pondered this dilemma, Matthew 5:29 came to mind: “If your right eye causes you to stumble, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.” This verse perplexes many Christians. It is so stark and drastic and RADICAL! Could Jesus really have meant . . . ?!?
Does this apply to my use of a cell phone?
Despite how difficult this text is to interpret in its extreme presentation, Jesus makes very clear that radical problems require radical solutions. We are not to be content with half-measures. If indeed some temptation is leading us away from Christ, we are to take radical measures to fix that problem, as potentially our eternal souls are on the line.
Now, using a cell phone isn’t sin. However, it most certainly fits into the category of often not beneficial. Of course, if someone is using their cell phone for specifically wicked things, then this applies even more. The principle from this text is that perhaps a radical solution is required to avoid a negative outcome. To cut oneself off from certain realities is to save oneself for things of even greater value and importance. I decided to remove my access to these non-beneficial things, hoping to restore habits of far greater benefit and value.
So I’ve become maimed, as it were. If someone sends me a twitter link to click on I reply, “I’m sorry I cannot view that. I have become blind.” If I want to find out the latest updates on the Kardashians or the latest Trump indictment, I cannot. I am culturally and socially disabled. If I want to read a really important book—though it’s a challenge for me right now—my faculties, which had been maimed and broken, are being restored and my abilities are regenerating. I’m truly happier, less anxious, more contented, and satisfied in my pursuit of the beneficial.
My phone is no longer smart, but I’d like to think that it has become wise.
Posted in
School Culture
It needs to be published at every school and other places as well.
Thanks to the author.