I spent much of this week based out of Port Macquarie on the Mid North Coast, as I continued my ‘Over the Horizon’ hosted discussion tour. With the northern two schools booked in for Monday and Tuesday next week, the emerging evidence in the ‘ideas warehouse’ of your collective thinking about ‘what is over the horizon’ for our profession, company and schools, is simply… inspirational. But more on that in future weeks.

Each morning this week, whilst I was away, I was able to enjoy my early morning walk in the dark, taking place along the ocean, as I walked from ‘in town’ at Port Macquarie, along the mouth of the Hastings River break-wall and then south for a good distance, before I did a u-turn and headed back.

I am NOT a boat person by any shape or experience, so it was intriguing to me why, as I walked towards the ocean in the dark, boat after boat was charging through the mouth of the river so early in the morning to do whatever they were planning to do. There appeared to my untrained eye, to be everything from fishing boats, dive boats, work boats, yachts and run-of-the-mill pleasure boats all charging for open water. I had no idea that ‘boaties’ are all early morning people like me. 

It was not until I was walking back, about 30 minutes later, that I spotted a lone yacht, making its way out of the river that the penny then dropped. Making its way is a poor euphemism for almost standing still; such was the force of the tide rushing into the river mouth. I had only ever seen the river mouth as a fairly placid spot with relatively calm water, with little current, and in some places just a flat shimmering expanse of water greeting the eye.

This was not what this yacht was experiencing. Whatever outboard motor it was using, it was barely enough to achieve forward momentum. Such was the speed, volume and wave chop, that the yacht was at real risk, in my view, of being stationary (running on the spot) for a very long time. But imperceptibly, bit by bit, metre by metre, it clawed its way out to the open ocean.

Now I understood why there was the earlier rush to get out by those other boats. Those captains understood and respected the rhythms of the sea. Unchanging, known and fixed, those rhythms as represented here by the tides, when respected proved no challenge, when ignored, can be almost insurmountable obstacles.

We are no different. There are rhythms to our lives that when acknowledged and allowed for add much to our happiness but if ignored, cause challenge. The rhythms associated with eating, sleeping, social experiences, private reflection, exercise… the list is long and in truth, quite obvious. Ignore any of those elements and we end up discovering challenges in our lives and often, of our own making. 

I believe we were created to have a ‘life rhythm’, to find balance and equilibrium in our existence; and finding that balance is our shared life quest and constant tension point. (Well it is for me anyhow) I also believe that faith is part of that rhythm we were created to live by, live with and live in. To ignore that faith rhythm is to choose to sail against the tide. To approach life under powered, under prepared and only one wave away from sinking out of site.

Yes, I paint a dramatic picture, but as you and I daily engage with a world more and more distant from a faith-driven narrative, as we see faith being diminished, disregarded and devalued, the tide does get stronger and the need for each of us to have faith rhythm becomes ever more important.

But I celebrate, and I don’t despair.

I celebrate because not only do I believe, but I see regular evidence of that rhythm, the evidence of the power of our choices (personally and corporately) along with the evidence that Adventist schools and early learning centres are strongly sailing against the tide. We have a purpose, a mission and mandate to make a difference. We are not stuck in the river mouth, but we have made it to the open ocean where the fishing is plentiful and waters rich with opportunity.

So, next time you see the ocean or you notice the tide, celebrate with me that we, all of us, have the power to choose the rhythms we live with and that we all have the opportunity to daily act as ‘the Bridge’: forging forward into the open ocean!

Flow.

This word of encouragement for Christian educators was written by Dean Bennetts, and distributed in The Bridge newsletter in 2022. Dean is the CEO of Adventist Education in North New South Wales, Australia.