A childhood memory that managed to take permanent residence in my mind, is TV ads for Berger Paints, with a slogan that claimed that these paints ‘keep on keeping on’. I always thought that this catchphrase was simply a spark of inspiration from one of that company’s advertising and marketing employees. But very recently I discovered that in 1932 Berger Paints had actually taken their very successful tagline straight from a poem that was written to celebrate the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The author of that poem? C.J. Dennis – you might have heard of his better-known work, ‘The Sentimental Bloke’.
‘Keep on keeping on’. Those words resound with ideas of perseverance, of persistence, don’t they? And it’s not too profound to recognise that that’s commonly how we do life: us, those with whom we work, and whom we serve. Things might not be sheer hard work ALL the time. But to ‘keep on keeping on’, in the face of challenges, is a reality of life in a fallen and imperfect world – and that includes the Christian life.
A ministry friend of mine put it this way in a paper they wrote some years ago:
I am convinced that the lasting character of the Christian life is perseverance. All else can be ‘faked’ except for this. It is perseverance we are called to…. There are Christians that I know…who are sometimes concerned that they’re not truly Christian, because all they manage to do is survive from day to day. Yet their stories are a great testimony to how God has held them in very difficult circumstances, and they can rejoice that they have clung to Jesus. (The day will come) when their present situations will be past history. In the meantime, their Christian life is about persevering and living appropriate to the circumstances, aware of the care of their loving God.
Those words took me to chapter 11 of the book of Hebrews. There’s a list of great people of faith from the pages of the Old Testament, which reads a bit like those Honour Boards that are often features of our schools, displayed prominently in halls or other significant buildings (though, in reality, they’re rarely read or noticed). The names are familiar: Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, David, and a host of others.
At the list’s end, verse 39 says: ‘These were all commended for their faith…’ Yet this commendation doesn’t necessarily come because they’re thriving in godly living, or achieving great success in their service of God. Rather, they’re commended for their perseverance: in the face of jeers; imprisonment; destitution; persecution; mistreatment; and more. They ‘keep on keeping on’, knowing the God whose promises they were trusting, and who was at work in their own lives – even if that work, at times, was simply to provide the strength to persevere. And these are the ‘witnesses’, of a few verses later, who encourage us to ‘run with perseverance the race marked out for us.’ (Hebrews 12:2)
If persevering can be seen as a common experience of the Christian life, then it seems to me that it also characterises our work as school chaplains. To ‘keep on keeping on’? That’s an essential part of what we do. We play the ‘long game’ in this ministry – largely by persevering.
- In the building of relationships with the people we serve.
- In planting the seed of the Gospel message, for it to bear fruit in God’s grace and time.
- In persisting in love for those within our school communities.
All the while praying for them and ourselves, as 2 Thessalonians 3:5 puts it: ‘may the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.’
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