Weekly Reflection – Try, try again.

Over the last couple of weeks thousands of young people around the country have been waiting anxiously to receive their exam results. That bit of paper with the transcript of their grades is the embodiment of months, even years, of hard work with future careers potentially dependent upon them; a wrong answer or a sub-par piece of coursework might therefore cost a student a place at their preferred university and possibly even the course they require to qualify in a particular field of employment. To youngsters who subsequently receive the ‘wrong’ grades the future may seem very bleak indeed amidst the adrenaline rush of everyone else’s celebrations.

We adults know, of course, that life has many more opportunities than the narrow post-exam portal into further or higher education. We know that learning is a life-long occupation (or, at least, it ought to be). And furthermore, continued learning ought to have an element of joy about it: we engage in education in our later years because we want to and not because we have to. I was struck by a news article the other day about a 45-year-old who left education at the age of 16 without any qualifications but who now has a PhD and works as a university lecturer and finds great reward in it. This, and other similar stories, is proof that life does not simply stop if one’s exam results are lower than anticipated. There is always another chance; there is always hope. Sometimes it might take a little longer to get to where we want to be in life…but that’s ok. The learning never stops.

The Bible encourages all of us to life-long study. The writer of the Book of Proverbs says “Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard [wisdom], for she is your life.” But the Bible also tells us that true learning and wisdom come ultimately from God; nothing we do of ourselves will succeed, but God will guide us. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” says Proverbs, which is an invitation to learn from the God who is the source of all good things. We could do worse, therefore, than to commit ourselves to the Lord and learn from him. And, perhaps, to spare a prayer for those youngsters who can’t quite see the way forward in life just yet.

In Christ,
Canon Kathryn