From the Pastor's Pen, September, 2007:
“Back to School—Again!”
As I was thinking of the
“back to school” time of year, a particular memory from my freshman year of high
school came back to me. Perhaps you remember the feeling of being a
freshman—for many, it meant starting over as the youngest of the bunch of
students and moving to a new school building. Always one to have anxiety about
new experiences, I would imagine terrible things like not being able to find my
classroom, getting lost in the halls, not being able to open my locker, being
late for classes and so on, until I’d worked myself up into a state of panic,
almost. Well, you know how those anxieties always turn out. The high school
building which seemed so big on the day before school started turned out to be
easy to master—by the end of the second day, I could draw a map of it in my
head. Turned out I did remember how to open a combination lock, and most of the
time, I made it to the next class with time to spare, even when I had to change
clothes after gym class or put my horn away after band.
In the midst of that anxious
memory is a particular experience with my freshman English teacher, “Mrs. J”.
I’d love to tell you that she was a stellar example of a teacher, whose classes
changed my life and set me on a disciplined path that I follow to this day. Can’t do it. Mrs. J, quite honestly, at least in my memory
of that freshman year, was simply mean. Joyless. No
fun. Hard-nosed. For crying out loud, even when we
read “Romeo and Juliet” in class, she was no fun.
Very early in the first
semester, Mrs. J assigned the class a paper. She had a short list of topics to
choose from, one of which was “Education.” I thought, “I can do that.” I wrote
about the need for lifelong education, how important it was, and so on, even
included a quote I had seen on a bronze plaque on the wall of Willard Public
Library in Battle Creek, “And I am still learning.” Unfortunately, when I wrote
the paper, I didn’t remember who had spoken that quote, and Mrs. J wrote in red
ink and a sarcastic tone on my paper, “ANY wise person would say this!” (By the
way, it was Michelangelo). I thought it was a pretty decent paper.
It turned out to be a trick.
Mrs. J was trying to get the point across that one can’t write a paper without
narrowing down the topic. You can’t write a three-page paper about as big a
topic as “Education” and do it justice. She was trying to get us to focus, to
limit our subjects to a manageable size. I’m sure she was probably right, and
the lesson was learned. But to a group of frightened freshmen, it was a mean
thing to do, a rather nasty way make a point.
Maybe I did learn the
lesson—I try to keep my topics narrowed down even now (God’s grace, God’s
grace, God’s grace…). And if I don’t get it all said in any one sermon, I’ve
got about 51 more chances that year to make it plain. Maybe for some of those
students in that freshman English class, Mrs. J was a stellar teacher, who
stimulated their minds and taught them how to think rather than what to think.
But I can tell you, what I remember most about that year was the quote from
Michelangelo: “And I am still learning.”
I think it’s a valuable
reminder in our lives of faith. We are still learning, still in process, still
on a journey. Learning is a lifelong process in our lives of faith. Life
lessons in faith are all around us, not just in sermons, not just in the Bible,
not just in Christian education classes. But those are fine places to start.
I’m excited to share with
you this issue of First Inklings, with a special section on Christian Education
opportunities. You’ll find this issue full of choices you can make to learn and
grow in faith, no matter what your age. Some are traditional Sunday morning
Sunday School classes, some are opportunities for
fellowship and learning away from Sunday morning. I hope you’ll take them to
heart, and find a place in your schedule for one or more of the options that
fit you, that you’d like to learn more about.
We are on a lifelong journey
toward God. We can all grow into the love God has revealed in Jesus Christ. We
can learn much in shared experience with other people of faith, in hearing
their stories and being challenged by their example. We can become more at ease
with the language of faith and of the stories of the Bible, and how that One
Big Story impacts and challenges all of our stories.
There are so many things to
be excited about at
On the Journey with you,
e-mail Pastor Baker-Streevy
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