“If God’s grace hadn’t reached into your life, there’s no saying where you’d be today. To be the beneficiary of God’s grace from all eternity is unqualified!” — Alistair Begg
I visited The Gospel Coalition annual conference this week to experience another large-scale Christian gathering and learn from those who have been doing this work before us, and at a much larger scale. The likes of John Piper, Alistair Begg, Mark Vroegop, Andrew Wilson, and more inspired us with truth. It was refreshing to be on the receiving end of Gospel-centered teaching. I hope all of you visiting our summer conference will leave just as energized and refreshed.
But today, we’re not there yet.
We’re in May.
For school leaders and teachers, there’s no month quite like it. May demands your presence in a dozen directions: final grades, evaluations, board reports, student events, senior sendoffs, faculty transitions, parent meetings, and still, the everyday work of forming minds and souls. It’s a lot. It is too much—if you’re trying to carry it alone.
That’s why this month is the perfect time to remember the truth found in Colossians 1: “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” You may feel like things are barely holding—your classroom, your schedule, your emotional energy. But the good news is that your strength was never the glue. Christ holds your work, your school, your team, and your students. He holds you.
This is not about coasting to the finish line. It’s about finishing faithfully. Not frantically. Not flawlessly. But faithfully. One day at a time. One prayer at a time. One conversation at a time. As you press on toward summer, remember: what feels ordinary or even burdensome now may be the very moment God is using to shape lives in quiet, unseen ways.
You don’t need to manufacture inspiration to end the year well. You just need to abide in Christ’s strength, which is made perfect in weakness. The most important work in your classroom may not be what gets turned in or what shows up on a final report—it may be a word of grace, an act of patience, or the simple stability of showing up each day.
And soon, there will be time to rest.
This June, we’ll gather again at the Summer Conference. We’ll open the Scriptures, reconnect with peers, and recenter our work around the preeminence of Christ. But don’t wait until then to remember what is most true: you are the beneficiary of God’s unqualified grace. Even here. Even in May.
Let that grace carry you the rest of the way.