Principal's Message T2 W3 2022
May the 4th Be With You
Each time I write a newsletter reflection the first thing I do is to open the last one I wrote, save over the file with today’s date, re-read the old one and then proceed to delete it and pen the new piece.
This week when I saved the date I noticed that it was May the 4th. In recent times of course the whole ‘May the 4th be with you’ thing has become more popular. It was a bit of an ‘in joke’ years ago but with social media and the like these kinds of puns spread pretty quickly nowadays.
Now I may be getting old, but I remember when Star Wars first came out. I was a young lad, about 9 years old and it was huge! A few things really jump out at me when I recall that special time.
The first is the quality of the special effects. Up until that time science fiction movies generally were a bit cheesy, but Star Wars really upped the ante and the X-wings and Star Destroyers were just so realistic.
Secondly was lightsabres. That was brand new and genius. Every kid always wanted to be a knight and swing a sword, but now you could have a laser sword, and they looked magnificent. They changed the world for kids everywhere.
Thirdly was the idea of ‘the force’. May the force be with you! As young Luke Skywalker was taken on his journey of discovery, so to were we. Obi Wan Kenobi told Luke, ‘The force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together.’ And we believed it.
Somewhere in our heart though we knew it wasn’t true. No matter how hard I tried, I could not lift a rock with the force, or use the Jedi mind trick to make my big sister share her snacks, ‘these are not chicken chips you are looking for!’ It just didn’t work.
But as a young Christian kid it did remind me that I was connected to a real and ever-present force. That there is something else in this world beyond the physical, that there is a spiritual reality to our being. We are indeed spiritual beings on a physical journey, not the other way around.
Our God reveals himself as YHWH, Yahweh. His name, we are told, was designed not to be spoken, but to be breathed. In … yah, out … weh. He is life itself. In our very first moment we called out his name, and we will do so in our last. It is a profound thought.
And that life force, that essence, that spirit, that Holy Spirit is what is active here at Faith Lutheran College Redlands. Surrounding us and penetrating us, binding us together in love and community in service of the children in our care.
May that force be with you!
Shane Altmann
Principal