My friend Bill had to take a geography class as one of the required courses to become a certified high school math teacher. On the first day of class an elderly man unsteadily and haltingly walked to a lectern at the front of the classroom; he then slowly opened his brief case and extracted his lecture notes. They were very brittle and yellowed with many years (decades) of use. Bill told me that in this geography class the population of the United States was 106 million people instead of the then current population of 180 million. Bill had to attend class every day, for there was no other way to know the “correct” answers to upcoming test questions. It was an excellent example of information passing from the notes of the professor to the notes of the students without passing through the minds of either.

When I first heard this story, I laughed. Later, I felt sorry for the professor. Finally, because I was a teacher, I felt a lack of respect, tinged with a tiny bit of anger. I think this was because he had made a decision to re-use his notes and not keep up in his field when he was still young and capable; his incompetence as a teacher was a consequence of this youthful decision, and not because of his age. One of a teacher’s main responsibilities is to know and present the most appropriate material possible. This requires continuing to learn the newest ideas and to grow in understanding. There is another reason; the best way to identify with students’ learning difficulties, is to be a learner oneself.

I think there is a lesson here for us as Christians. While the love and grace of God is immutable, our knowledge and understanding are not. We need to learn more in order to continually grow our faith. There are a number of ways to do this; reading our Bibles as well as books written to explain it, participating in Bible Studies, attending church and listening to the word, meditating and praying are a few. In 2 Peter 3:18 Peter writes “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” The more we grow as Christians, the more secure we become in the knowledge that God loves us unconditionally.

Jim