Phillip A. Bishop
Kinesiology
University of Alabama
I am not a very good professor. I am not a bad university faculty member, but I don’t profess very well what’s most important to me.
Maybe I’m a little gun-shy having spent 3.5 years in federal court suing a university, which will remain nameless, over the issue of what can be discussed in class. Despite all this, I am handsomely paid for the purpose of teaching exercise science in a public university.
Our Dilemma
I do recognize the dilemma that most of us share — of teaching interesting material in our classes that really is neither life-changing nor eternally significant. People do not jump off bridges due to a lack of knowledge of exercise science, and likely not over your area either.
I am paid by the university to teach an academic subject, but I am called by God to offer comfort to the afflicted and hope to the hopeless. I am not so much interested in having a room named after me, as I am having a meaningful impact on the life and afterlife particularly of those God has brought directly under my influence. I have had students who were wandering through life with no real direction. Even sadder, I have had students whose parents were in the midst of divorcing, and some whose families had long ago disintegrated.
So how can we reconcile this tension? There are two ways that are moral, ethical and legal. First, there is nothing to stop us from praying often for our students. When appropriate, we can offer to pray with them. A few years ago I had the great thrill of answering distress calls from two of my previously graduated Ph.D.s in a single week, and praying with both of them right there on the telephone.
Serving Them
Though some of us would find praying with students a bold move, it is one of the easier options. The second way to impact students is to conduct our teaching, research and service with an eye to serving our students first, then ourselves (Mk 10:45 and Phil 2:3-4). This second option is truly more challenging.
To be honest, my first inclination is to first look out for my own reputation as a first-author, primary investigator, and scientific “expert.” It takes deliberate thought and effort to place students ahead of myself. So many examples and admonitions I see in scripture do just the opposite. Perhaps, like the introduction to the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5) illustrates, such an aspiration is impossible apart from the Holy Spirit.
Being salt and light in a sometimes unfriendly environment is a serious challenge.
Godspeed.
(c) 2005 Phillip A Bishop