I was teaching an elementary statistics course, which could be used to satisfy a general education requirement.  The course was designed to be as non-technical as possible, and the text was very readable with few formulas.  I tried to stress that the information was useful to being an informed citizen; it contained topics such as evaluating polling results, understanding newspaper and TV reports on medical and scientific discoveries, and how to look for sources of bias.  A student, who was having trouble in the course, was in my office for help.  I was not surprised to see him.  One of the topics we had discussed in class was the difference between correlation and causation, but he had not discovered that there was any kind of relationship between class attendance and performance.  We had worked together for about thirty minutes, when he frustratingly said, “I don’t see any purpose in taking this course.  I’m going into business, and if I need anything using statistics, I will hire someone!”

            I was dumbstruck.  I wanted to point out that if I could cover two weeks of class in thirty minutes I would have done so, but actually gave a pretty muted response.  I think I eventually said something to the effect of how would he be able to evaluate what his employee was telling him if he didn’t understand what was going on?  By not gaining statistical skills he was losing one source of the insight needed to make business decisions.  And if he accepted statistical information on faith, then he was making himself redundant.  I’ve thought about this many times over the years, and now I think he had an elitist attitude that showed disdain for the potential contributions of his future employees.  Somehow, I think that the actual work of his future company was beneath him.  Writing this, many years later, I think he viewed me as one of those he had hired whose work he didn’t value.

            As Christians we are charged with many tasks associated with spreading the Good News.  Sometimes we are like the student, and we say to ourselves, “We have a minister to do that.”  This diminishes the value of our task, and the work of the minister.  When Paul wrote of spiritual gifts, he was talking of the gifts of ordinary Christians, not just those of their leaders.  He implied that all tasks were important, for in 1 Corinthians 12:6 he wrote, “There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.”  Exercising these gifts is important to strengthen us as Christians and is a part of our worship experience.  This is analogous to lifting weights in the weight room; we do it to gain strength, not because there is a critical need to get the weights off the floor.

            Please read what Paul has to say about spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Jim