04/06/2022 Principal's Note

I'm going to level with you: Our WELSSA self-study and site team visit have stressed me out for months, and I can't wait for them to be over. As someone who has high standards, every time we ran into something that was not "up to par," and every time I had to answer a question from our site team with a less than exceptional answer, it bothered me. Even though, being new this year, I have not had the opportunity to tackle some of these things yet, I yearn for Emanuel to be as top-notch as I know we can be, and some things that happened in the past are still in the way.

Do you ever feel like that? Something that happened in the past, whether it was hours, months, or years ago, just keeps coming back to bug you. A poor choice you made, a sin against you by a friend or coworker that you are finding hard to forgive, an event in your life that you had no control over that has scarred you; it doesn't really matter what it is. The past has a way of holding us back, like a runner who can't help but look over his or her shoulder to check the other runners' positions. It slows you down and allows life to pass you by.

Look at what God tells us through the prophet Isaiah: "This is what the LORD says...'Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am making a new thing'" (Isaiah 43:16,18-19, NIV 2011)! Isaiah's job throughout most of his book was chastising Israel for their disobedience and warning them of God's coming wrath. They had made A LOT of mistakes in their past. Those mistakes kept coming back to haunt them. The tone in this section is different. God spoke through Isaiah to comfort his people. Yes, they had screwed up, and consequences were coming. Instead of dwelling on what they had done wrong, though, God lovingly (and firmly) cupped their faces in his hands and turned their heads in a different direction. He said to them, "Stop looking back there; there is nothing you can do about it now. Instead, look at what I'm doing for you now and what is coming."

He does the same thing to us now, even though something like the accreditation process. Sure, we could wallow in our past failings and mistakes; that's the easy thing to do. It's also the wrong thing to do. As we move forward, we do so for the same reason the apostle Paul gave in his second letter to the Corinthians: "For Christ's love compels us" (2 Corinthians 5:14, NIV 2011). It's why we do what we do. The love of Christ drives us to tear ourselves away from the past and see what we can do for his kingdom now and in the future. We have an opportunity as an organization to move toward excellence after this process, and that is our intention. I pray that you will feel compelled to join us on that journey!

Have a blessed rest of your week.

In Christ,

Principal Bill Fuerstenau