Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Teaching is what I do

This past two months I have enjoyed teaching a class of 35 students at the Evangelical Theological College of the Philippines. This young lady is one of the students. We have been talking about Understanding and Communication the Word of God. It has been an experience that I have found very meaningful to me.

One of the assignments was to write a biography of the man born blind in chapter 9 of John's Gospel. One of the students wrote the following:

And God spit in the dust and made mud and put it...

Just think, God made mud. What a very human thing yet God was living with us and doing things right in front of our eyes, or at least the eyes of the people that were alive at the time of Jesus. This student's simple comment has been coming back to me in so many ways, God lived here. He did things for and with us.

He went to weddings, funerals, fishing expeditions and visited people in their homes. Just imagine, God came to my house yesterday.

Teaching is such a challenging process. It leaves me open to the ideas and suggestions of others. Others who do not have the academic credentials that I have but do see the world in ways that I do not think of.

Thanks for joining me in this exploration.