In yesterday’s meditation, we explored the idea of going back … back for just thirty minutes to a favorite time in our childhood. Yesterday’s focus was on a meal. This morning, my thoughts have stayed on the same theme, but from a slightly different angle.
If you could go back for 30 minutes to a particular classroom, what would you pick and why?
I’m not suggesting a return to homework or to the smell of chalk dust permeating the air. But maybe there was a teacher.
The kind of teacher you still remember decades later. You know the one I mean. The one who made you love a subject you thought you hated. The one who believed in you when you weren’t particularly good at believing in yourself. The one who had a way of making you feel seen and heard.
Perhaps you can still picture the classroom. The arrangement of the desks. The sound of the bell. Maybe you can even remember where you sat.
Imagine having thirty minutes to sit through one more lesson. To ask one more question. To experience the joy of learning something new without any other expectations. And, maybe, at the end of the class, the opportunity to stop at the teacher’s desk and say, “Thank you.”
Memories like these remind us that we don’t usually remember people because of some enormous thing they did. We remember them because they played a part in shaping us into who we would eventually become.
A teacher may have taught you algebra. But perhaps they also taught you patience. A teacher may have taught you history. But perhaps they also taught you curiosity. A teacher may have taught you English, Spanish, or German. But perhaps they also taught you that your voice mattered. A teacher may have taught you literature. But perhaps they also taught you about other worlds, including the world of imagination.
The most important lessons aren’t written on chalkboards. They’re the ones we carry with us.
Jesus was often called “Teacher.” And when Jesus taught, he wasn’t simply transferring information. He was shaping people. Changing lives. He taught his disciples how to see. How to forgive. How to love enemies. How to notice people others overlooked. How to trust God. How to pray. How to live differently.
We aren’t simply people who believe certain things about Jesus. We’re people who allow him to teach us how to live and to shape us into better versions of ourselves.
If I could go back to that classroom for 30 minutes, I’d like to think I’d pay more attention than I did the first time. That I’d realize that someday I would miss that room and especially that teacher.
Maybe that’s a good spiritual practice for today: Pay attention to the Teacher. Listen. Watch. Learn. Because we may discover that God is teaching us something in this very ordinary moment that we won’t fully understand or appreciate until much later. When we finally look back and realize: “Oh. That’s what God was doing.”
Who was your favorite teacher, and what made them special? As for me, thanks, Walt Cook. You made a difference.
