What We Can Learn at CCA
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May 28, 2009 • written by Jessica Matthews
Filed under Commentary, Editor's Note, featured
Tomorrow, the Class of 2009 will take one last look around the halls where we spent the last four years of our lives. And no doubt the one thing in our minds will be all the great things we learned from CCA and all the good times we had here. But on this day in late May, some will also take a last look at their first impression of CCA—a young Christian school simply in love with Jesus. And with that last thought, maybe they’ll even recall that burning question that Pastor Bob Coy, the senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale, left in our minds three weeks ago, during a high school chapel.
“What does it mean to know God—to really know Him?” Finding the correct words to make us think, he said, “My relationship with Him is built by talking to Him (prayer) and listening to Him as He talks back to me (reading the Word.) But more than anything, (students) need to know just how much He loves them. Everyone is on a search for true love and acceptance in this life. I believe that when a person truly and fully (understands) the depth of God’s love for them, they will respond to it. And when they do, that love will become the foundation for everything else that they’re going to need to learn, know, and do.”
Part of sharing Christ’s love with the students at CCA is emphasizing our fallen nature and desperate need for a Savior. Otherwise, it is hard for students to understand why they should surrender to God in the first place. “(Students) need to see our mourning over anything less than the Lordship of Jesus Christ in their life,” says CCA Superintendent, David Salvatelli.
It is easy to sink into a culture of spiritual apathy because the culture itself—a culture of using “Christian” words, and doing “Christian” things; a culture that only talks about knowing God, without truly knowing and dining with Him—does not ask us to deny our personal sins and ambitions.
“Why do people have spiritual apathy?” Mr. Salvatelli questions. “Because there’s a cost to pay. Because there’s pain involved. Because there’s personal sacrifice and dying to self that naturally we don’t want any part of…you cannot have Christ on your own terms.”
And yet, truly knowing Christ and experiencing His eternal salvation is worth sacrificing our lives. “It’s an issue of Christian culture…” explains Dr. Bryan, CCA Dean of Administration. “That’s why the battle begins with repentance as the first part of the Gospel. And then when you peel back all of the façade, all of the religious make-belief, we get to see Jesus more clearly and He has an opportunity to confront us with Who He really is.”
On any given day, we can see CCA alive with a high-energy buzz of excitement, from every football game to every drama performance. But if we fail to keep Christ as the vine of this culture, we have made a grievous mistake. As Pastor Bob said during chapel, we do not have to wait for some dreadful tragedy to bring us closer to God and to recognize our need for salvation. We must take time now to be with our Savior, our Friend, our God: Jesus Christ.
So, at the end of each day, what we can learn at CCA—through this community—is that God reveals again and again His power to work out His magnificent plan. The story of every student, faculty, and parent is CCA’s story; and the thread that runs through the fabric of this story tells of the love relationship that God has with us.
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