My Vision is my Victory

“Be Thou My Vision,” Stanza 5:

High King of Heaven, my victory won,

May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!

Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,

Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

Congratulations, Families of Paideia Classical Christian School! You have successfully

reached the end of the 2025-2026 academic year. Victory! Now your summer reward stretches

out invitingly before you.

June seems, therefore, to be an appropriate month in which also to reach the victorious end of

our in-depth study of Paideia’s School Song, “Be Thou My Vision.” We’ve seen in every stanza

an encapsulation of one or more of the important guiding principles undergirding the classical

Christian education that we offer you here. It is my hope that each article has added depth to

your understanding of Paideia’s generational mission. And in this final article in the series, I

aspire to tie the proverbial bow on the gift that Paideia has proffered to you this year – a gift to

you that will also be a gift to the future generations of your families.

The central focus of the final stanza of our School Song is the concept of victory itself. The

very first line envisions the time when each of us will have won our own most important victory:

our final ascension to the joys of Heaven, where our great High King, the Ruler of all, will shed

abroad all the Light we will ever need or desire, obviating any further need for our earthly sun,

moon, and stars. Revelation 21:2 foretells that “the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, will come

down out of Heaven from God like a Bride dressed for her Bridegroom;” and Revelation 21:23

goes on to describe the City’s light source both mysteriously and alluringly: “The City does not

need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its

lamp.” Perhaps like Moses’s face after his every meeting with the LORD, our visages will shine

from the inside out when we at last stand face to face in the presence of Jesus; but unlike Moses,

we will never need to veil ourselves from the sight of others, for “then we shall know fully, even

as we are fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:2)

But how should we define “victory?” Is measureable growth in a person’s character as much

a victory as one nation’s crushing military defeat of another? Just how much steady winning is

required before a person or a nation can claim to have achieved victory? May we claim victory

whenever we advance by even small degrees toward increased proficiency in a sport, an

intellectual pursuit, or an artistic endeavor? Can our moral victories be small and incremental,

achieved only slowly and painfully with the Holy Spirit’s aid over the entire course of our

Christian lives? Or can we arrive at true victory only when our enemy surrenders to us

unconditionally and lies at our feet, never to rise again? Do the prolonged trials and agonies of

Odysseus produce victory when he succeeds in surmounting each challenge one at a time? Or

does he achieve true victory only when he finally attains his homecoming?

For myself, I believe that in order to avoid the satanic trap of self-defeating discouragement, I

not only can but must claim as victories every tiny step the Lord helps me take on the ever-

upward trajectory of becoming more like Him: redeemed and re-created, the person He created

me to become. But none of those baby-step victories would even be possible, if Jesus Christ had

not utterly and forever vanquished on my behalf my twin mortal enemies: Sin and Death. My

tottering forward lurches are possible, though, because my Lord instructs me to “fix my eyes on

Jesus, the Author and Finisher of my faith” (Hebrews 12:2). It is this fixing of my gaze upon

Jesus as my Vision that will produce my Victory in the end. It is through cleaving to Him as the

very “heart of my own heart, whatever befall” that I will at last “reach Heaven’s joys” because

He has already won my victory for me.

How artfully the lyrics of our School Song convey all of these saving and sustaining truths!

My admiration for our Song has increased exponentially as I have pondered it in order to write

these articles for you. It was especially moving to learn that all of these truths that resonate so

profoundly with me, a 21 st century Christian, were originally penned by a sixth-century Irish poet

named Dallan Forgaill, and that his poem has been used for centuries as part of traditional Irish

monastic prayer. What beautiful evidence of the supernatural integration of all the parts of the

Body of the Christ, over millennia and across cultures! May this thought prove as enduring a gift

to you and your generations, Families of Paideia Classical Christian School, as it has to me!

Marne Kendrick, June 2026