By Noel Thomason, SBS Head of School
Quick spoiler alert: This article touches on the central character development in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Over the summer, my daughter Elise, who enjoys the Spider-Man series, invited me to see the newest movie, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, that opened on July 31, 2026. I am sure she wanted my company, although she most likely also wanted me to pay for the tickets. On a side note, she doesn’t seem nearly as interested in the other Marvel movies, so I have concluded she may simply have a crush on actor Tom Holland. Nevertheless, I was flattered by the invitation and grateful for the opportunity to spend some time with her.
I enjoyed the movie and was especially struck by how well its story connected with our theme for this school year. In the newest Spider-Man story, Peter Parker begins to discover that he is more spider-like than he had understood. For years, much of what enabled him to function as Spider-Man came from technology. His artificial webs, mechanical devices, specialized suit, and remarkable intellect supplemented his abilities. Peter knew that he possessed extraordinary powers, but he still relied upon things he could design, understand, and control. He was part spider, yet much of the time he was still acting like a spider.
As the story unfolds, adversity begins to awaken something within him. Abilities he did not fully understand emerge, sometimes uncontrollably. This transformation frightens him. He recognizes that something about him has changed, but he is reluctant to surrender to the full reality of what he has become. Instead, he continues trying to manage his circumstances through familiar methods. He relies upon his intelligence, his gadgets, and the strengths that have served him before.
Eventually, however, those resources are no longer sufficient. His technology fails. His artificial webs cannot save him. The mask is removed, his strength is exhausted, and defeat appears inevitable. Peter reaches the end of everything he can manufacture, manipulate, or control. He can no longer merely imitate the movements of a spider. He must finally yield to the reality of his new nature.
Only then does he become, in the fullest sense, Spider-Man.
His victory is not merely a victory over an external opponent. Something is also resolved within him. The division between who he has become and how he has been living begins to close. His identity, abilities, and actions finally come into alignment. Peter does not simply defeat an enemy. He becomes whole.
A Rescued, Undivided New Life
There is something deeply familiar in this story.
Many of us live divided lives. We believe certain things about God, ourselves, and the world, but those beliefs do not always govern how we think, love, choose, or act. We may know the language of faith, participate in Christian practices, and turn to God when adversity overwhelms us. Yet, if we are honest, we often attempt to navigate most of life through our own intelligence, strength, experience, and control.
We know that we belong to Christ, but sometimes we merely act like Christians. We construct artificial webs of achievement, approval, comfort, success, appearance, and self-sufficiency. We supplement our lives with Christian ideas, but we do not always allow the truth of Christ to transform the whole person. Faith becomes one component of life rather than the reality through which all of life is understood.
The Christian life, however, is not an exercise in religious imitation.
Jesus Christ did not come merely to improve our natural abilities, provide spiritual equipment for difficult circumstances, or help us become more successful versions of ourselves. He came to rescue us from sin, reconcile us to God, and make us new. Scripture tells us that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). The gospel is not simply good advice added to our former lives. It is the announcement that, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have been invited into an entirely new life.
The gospel is not simply good advice added to our former lives. It is the announcement that, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have been invited into an entirely new life.
Shaped Most by What We Love
Here the Spider-Man comparison reaches its limit, but also points us toward a greater truth. Peter’s strength arises from a nature already hidden within him. Christian strength does not come from discovering a secret divine power buried somewhere inside ourselves. It comes from Christ. Our hope is not self-discovery, self-expression, or self-actualization. It is union with Jesus Christ and the transforming work of His Spirit.
We do not become whole by looking more deeply within ourselves. We become whole as every part of our lives is brought into submission to the One who created us, redeemed us, and knows us completely.
Paul describes this transformation as putting off the old self and putting on the new self, “created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22–24). Elsewhere, he tells believers to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 13:14). This is not a call to pretend to be something we are not. It is a call to live from the reality of what Christ has accomplished and who we are becoming in Him.
Strength comes from living in the reality of what God has declared to be true.
This truth forms the foundation of our theme for this school year: ordered love and the formation of our affections. Scripture teaches us that human beings are shaped not only by what they know, but also by what they love. Our hearts are continually being directed toward something. We treasure, desire, pursue, admire, and worship. Over time, the objects of our affection begin to form us.
We become like what we worship.
Scripture teaches us that human beings are shaped not only by what they know, but also by what they love. Our hearts are continually being directed toward something. We treasure, desire, pursue, admire, and worship. Over time, the objects of our affection begin to form us. We become like what we worship.
The psalmist describes those who fashion idols of silver and gold. The idols have mouths but cannot speak, eyes but cannot see, ears but cannot hear, and hands but cannot feel. Then comes the sobering conclusion: “Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them” (Psalm 115:8).
We are transformed by what receives our attention, trust, obedience, and love. If our highest affection is directed toward achievement, we will increasingly measure ourselves and others by performance. If we worship approval, we will become controlled by the opinions of others. If we treasure comfort, every inconvenience will feel like an injustice. If we love control, uncertainty will produce fear and frustration.
But if our hearts are increasingly captivated by Christ, we will become more like Him.
Education is Not Neutral
This is why education cannot be reduced to the transfer of information. Students are not merely minds to be filled. They are whole persons with hearts, imaginations, loyalties, habits, relationships, and desires. At StoneBridge, the educational environment must teach students what is worthy of their attention, what deserves their trust, what constitutes a meaningful life, and what kind of person they should become.
There is no spiritually neutral education because every understanding of knowledge begins with beliefs about truth, reality, humanity, morality, and purpose.
At StoneBridge, we speak often about the importance of an integrated Biblical worldview. By this, we mean far more than knowing Bible verses or identifying the correct Christian response on an assignment. An integrated Biblical worldview is formed when the truth of Scripture increasingly governs the whole person. It shapes how students understand mathematics and history, science and literature, friendship and conflict, success and suffering, freedom and responsibility. It orders what they believe, what they love, and how they live.
Integration is the opposite of division.
An integrated Biblical worldview is formed when the truth of Scripture increasingly governs the whole person. It shapes how students understand mathematics and history, science and literature, friendship and conflict, success and suffering, freedom and responsibility.
A divided student may affirm that every person bears the image of God but still treat classmates according to popularity, usefulness, or appearance. A student may know that God is sovereign but respond to difficulty as though everything depends upon personal control. A student may defend Biblical truth in a classroom discussion but seek identity and approval through the changing standards of social media. A student may say that Christ is Lord while organizing life around achievement, comfort, recognition, or fear.
In each case, the student may possess correct information, but that truth has not yet been fully integrated.
Adversity Exposes What We Trust
Of course, this struggle is not unique to children. It is the ongoing work of Christian formation for every one of us. Adults also live with inconsistencies between professed beliefs and functional beliefs. What we say we believe is revealed most clearly by what we trust when our plans fail, what we pursue when no one is watching, and how we respond when adversity removes our artificial webs.
Difficulty has a way of revealing the true order of our loves.
When Peter Parker’s technology failed, he was forced to confront the inadequacy of everything upon which he had relied. In a much greater and more serious way, adversity exposes the things in which we have placed our trust. It reveals whether we are living from the sufficiency of Christ or merely calling upon Him when our preferred resources no longer work.
Adversity exposes the things in which we have placed our trust. It reveals whether we are living from the sufficiency of Christ or merely calling upon Him when our preferred resources no longer work.
This does not mean that knowledge, preparation, technology, talent, or human effort are wrong. Peter’s intelligence was a genuine gift, just as the abilities God gives each of us are good gifts to be developed and faithfully used. The problem comes when gifts replace the Giver, when tools become objects of trust, or when our natural strengths allow us to maintain the illusion that we can live independently of God.
Christ does not invite us to add Him to an otherwise self-directed life. He invites us to follow Him.
That invitation is glorious, but we must not sentimentalize it. To join Christ is to join Him in His ministry, His obedience, His suffering, and His victory. Jesus did not promise His disciples a life free from adversity. He warned them that they would face trouble and opposition. He called them to deny themselves, take up their crosses, and follow Him.
Students Need a Greater Love
The forces that compete for our children’s affections are not passive. Every day, they receive messages telling them who they are, what they should love, what they should fear, and what will make them happy. They are being invited to construct identities from achievement, appearance, sexuality, popularity, consumption, and personal preference. They are encouraged to look within themselves for truth while simultaneously allowing algorithms, entertainment, and peers to shape what they find there.
Our students do not merely need stronger arguments to resist these influences. They need a greater affection.
The Scottish minister Thomas Chalmers called this “the expulsive power of a new affection.” Lesser loves are not finally overcome through prohibition alone. They are displaced as the heart encounters something infinitely more beautiful and worthy. We do not simply want students to know that certain artificial webs will fail them. We want them to see the surpassing worth of Christ.
When Christ becomes increasingly precious, obedience is no longer merely compliance with an external standard. It becomes the response of a heart learning to love what God loves. Truth is not merely something to be defended. It becomes something beautiful in which to dwell. Biblical worldview is no longer an academic category. It becomes the framework through which students recognize reality and faithfully inhabit God’s world.
Our students do not merely need stronger arguments to resist these influences. They need a greater affection…When Christ becomes increasingly precious, obedience is no longer merely compliance with an external standard. It becomes the response of a heart learning to love what God loves.
This is our hope for the coming year. We want our students to grow in knowledge, but we also want truth to shape their affections. We want them to develop their God-given intellects, but we also want their thinking to be governed by Scripture. We want them to pursue excellence, but not to find their identity in achievement. We want them to become confident, but not self-sufficient. We want them to become courageous, not because they believe they are invincible, but because they know that Christ is faithful.
We want the inward and outward life to agree.
An Invitation: Where Formation Begins
Our hope is not merely that students will know more Christian truths, but that the truth of Christ will increasingly order what they love, govern how they think, and shape the way they live. We long for them to become young men and women whose faith is not an accessory, whose Christianity is not a performance, and whose Biblical convictions do not disappear when circumstances become difficult.
We want them to live in the reality of who they are in Christ.
This work cannot be accomplished by the school alone. God has given parents the primary responsibility for the formation of their children, and StoneBridge exists to serve alongside Christian families in that sacred calling. The partnership between home and school is not merely practical. It is formative. Children are most powerfully shaped when the truths taught at school are reinforced by the loves, priorities, conversations, and practices of the home.
The partnership between home and school is not merely practical. It is formative. Children are most powerfully shaped when the truths taught at school are reinforced by the loves, priorities, conversations, and practices of the home.
Therefore, our invitation to parents this year is not simply to support the theme. It is to join us in living it.
Let us examine together what commands our attention, governs our schedules, shapes our conversations, and receives our strongest emotional energy. Let us ask whether our homes reflect what we say we believe. Let us allow our children to see us repent when our loves become disordered, seek forgiveness when our actions contradict our convictions, and return continually to the grace of Christ.
Our children do not need parents and teachers who pretend to have achieved perfect integration. They need adults who are sincerely submitting every part of life to Christ. They need to see that Christian maturity is not the absence of struggle, but the faithful practice of bringing our minds, hearts, habits, and relationships back into alignment with the truth.
Our children do not need parents and teachers who pretend to have achieved perfect integration…They need to see that Christian maturity is not the absence of struggle, but the faithful practice of bringing our minds, hearts, habits, and relationships back into alignment with the truth.
Our Confidence in Christ Alone
There will be adversity this year. Some challenges will be academic. Others will emerge through friendships, disappointments, family circumstances, discipline, failure, or fear. We should not desire these difficulties, but neither should we assume that they fall outside the work of Christian education. They may become the very places where false sources of strength are exposed and a deeper dependence upon Christ begins to grow.
When the artificial webs fail, we discover what we truly trust.
Our prayer is that every challenge will draw us more fully into the life of Christ. We pray that our students will not merely behave like Christians when circumstances are favorable, but will become increasingly rooted in truth, ordered in love, and steadfast in faith. We pray that they will know Christ not simply as an assistance in adversity, but as the source, center, and purpose of life.
Ultimately, the Christian story does not end with the discovery of our own power. It ends with the victory of Jesus Christ. He has conquered sin and death, and He is making all things new. Our confidence rests not in our ability to hold ourselves together, but in the One who holds us. Our strength is not found in a mask, a suit, a web, or a carefully constructed image. It is found in Christ alone.
Our confidence rests not in our ability to hold ourselves together, but in the One who holds us. Our strength is not found in a mask, a suit, a web, or a carefully constructed image. It is found in Christ alone.
This year, may we put away the artificial webs.
May we resist the temptation to supplement self-directed lives with Christian language. May we allow the Word of God to penetrate every subject, affection, ambition, relationship, and decision. May our beliefs and our lives increasingly become one coherent testimony to the lordship of Jesus Christ.
And as home and school labor together, may our students discover something far greater than the hidden power of a superhero. May they know the transforming grace of Christ, live in the fullness of His promises, and become more fully the people He created and redeemed them to be.
