It's My Life

An assembly from the Culham St Gabriel archive

Suitable for Whole School (Sec) - Church Schools

Aims

To demonstrate that we are all interdependent and that this is part of Christian belief.

Preparation and materials

• You will need a picture of Mr Burns from The Simpsons and the means to show this during the assembly. A picture is available at: http://tinyurl.com/jjwxwye

• Have available the song 'My way' by Frank Sinatra and the means to play it at the end of the assembly.

Assembly

1. Show the picture of Mr Burns and ask the students to identify him and explain who he is.
   Explain that Mr Burns always looks after his own interests and thinks nothing of treading on other people to get what he wants. He is very wealthy, but also universally disliked in his community. Occasionally, it dawns on him that others matter, but only if it serves his purposes. He is nice to people when he wants to get something out of them.

2. As we grow up, we become more independent. We want to make our own decisions and choices, and to appear less dependent upon other people. The danger is that we may start to think that we do not need other people at all, or we may start to treat other people as simply being there for our own convenience.
   In reality, everything that we do affects someone else in some way - we are never truly independent.

3. Think for a moment about the last product you bought. How many people were involved in its production? How many people were involved in the process of it passing from its raw materials into your hands? You may have chosen to buy the product, but your choice was dependent on many people working hard to enable you to buy it!

4. The Greek legend of King Midas tells of a man who, when asked what he most wanted, asked that all he touched should turn to gold. This was the ultimate in selfishness. The difficulty was that even his food and drink and his wife and children turned to gold! It led to a miserable and isolated life and he soon asked for the gift to be taken away from him.

5. Many years ago, a BBC Radio 4 children's programme told the story of a boy and a girl who played happily together. The girl loved the summer, playing in the sunshine among the flowers in the fields. The boy, however, was happiest in the winter snow.
   Each child wished that it would always be summer or winter where they were. Their wishes were granted and for a while, they were both happy in their own climate. Eventually, though, the boy and girl grew tired of playing alone and they went to find each other. Unfortunately, the sun melted the snow, but not before the snow had withered the flowers. Both of the children were miserable until they asked for their selfish wishes to be removed. 

6. Living for ourselves can be a lonely existence. Having what we want can seem attractive for a while, but it doesn't last long. We need each other. Humans are made to be together. Our race has only survived because we have learnt that we need to work together for each other's good.

Time for reflection

Do we see the importance of other people?
Do we value people’s opinions and respect their choices?
Let’s look at our lives and see what we can contribute to the good of others.

You may wish to read from 1 Corinthians 12.14-31 where Paul speaks about people working together in the same way as the human body.

Prayer
Dear Lord,
Thank you that we are not alone.
Thank you for family and friends.
Please help us to take the time to see the importance of all those around us.
Please help us to be unselfish and to think about other people’s needs.
Amen.

Song/music

'My way' by Frank Sinatra