31/08/2026
FROM THE HIGH SCHOOL COORDINATOR:
To Do or Not To Do, That is the Question
Hollie’s To Do List:
* Pay electricity bill
* Call back Mum
* Mark assessment task
* Give feedback on practice exam
* Buy graduation sign for Year 12
* Brainstorm and write talk for ladies event
* Make spare room bed
* Write newsletter article
This is just the beginning of a to do list found on a piece of paper that I keep misplacing. It started as a post it note, moved to the back of a scrap bit of paper, transferred digitally to a Doc that sits as a tab on my computer and fades into the background.
I love a list of things to do. It’s helpful and motivating to achieve things and to get to the end of the day and know you completed something or hopefully multiple somethings. It’s a nice feeling to see tangible evidence of the hours in a day. Like all good to-do lists things keep getting added and priorities shift so some things have been on the list forever, some are time sensitive and others don’t even make it to the list before they are demanded to be crossed off. A to do list is also handy to give purpose to the hours of each day and offer some direction on what needs to be completed.
The story of Joshua in the Bible has been one we have spent some time looking at over the last couple of weeks. It featured in our PD week devotional time with staff, in our Bible Study with High School students and in our first memory verse this term. Joshua 1:9 - Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Joshua arrived at Jericho in Joshua 6 and received a message from God which he had to add to his To Do List.
Joshua’s To Do List:
* Lead God's people
* Enter the promise land
* Stick to the rules
* March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark.
Joshua had taken over from Moses and had a mission to lead the Israelites into the promised land. A big goal consisted of several steps. Marching around a city for six days with an army and seven priests holding rams’ horns is a weird thing to have on the list. I could have been an easy one to let go of or let slip to the bottom of the list. But Joshua knew how important it was to listen to God and make this task a priority. It was while Joshua was working on this simple task of walking that he was asked to add more to his list.
Joshua’s To Do List:
* Lead God's people
* Enter the promise land
* Stick to the rules
̷*̷ ̷M̷a̷r̷c̷h̷ ̷a̷r̷o̷u̷n̷d̷ ̷t̷h̷e̷ ̷c̷i̷t̷y̷ ̷o̷n̷c̷e̷ ̷w̷i̷t̷h̷ ̷a̷l̷l̷ ̷t̷h̷e̷ ̷a̷r̷m̷e̷d̷ ̷m̷e̷n̷.̷ ̷D̷o̷ ̷t̷h̷i̷s̷ ̷f̷o̷r̷ ̷s̷i̷x̷ ̷d̷a̷y̷s̷.̷ ̷H̷a̷v̷e̷ ̷s̷e̷v̷e̷n̷ ̷p̷r̷i̷e̷s̷t̷s̷ ̷c̷a̷r̷r̷y̷ ̷t̷r̷u̷m̷p̷e̷t̷s̷ ̷o̷f̷ ̷r̷a̷m̷s̷’̷ ̷
* On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.
As Joshua was putting the work in he was asked to do one more thing and God gave him the victory. He helped him achieve the goal he was working towards and in verse 27 we find out that “the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land.”
My To Do List is not as exciting or as weird as Joshua’s but God still cares about the work that I do. He also asks me to care about the work that I do because everything I do I do for Him. Colossians 3:23-24 says Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. The simple purpose I have in my life to do my job to the best of my ability, invest in people, serve and love others like Jesus would, which ultimately creates this goal of making Christ bigger here on earth makes every little thing on that list very important.
I now look at my To Do Lists with a little more purpose and I hope that you can see how our day to day can have a huge impact in God’s big story.
Hollie
