Unfamiliar wisdom

 

Acts 9:19-22

In high school, I had a math teacher that wrote a quote on the chalkboard every day. He wanted to give us an encouraging or challenging message to think about when we came to his class. I'll confess there were many days I focused on that side of the board and not the equations he wrote on the other side. Each day's quote came from familiar sources. In quoting them, he taught us names of world leaders, famous philosophers and masterful artists. I appreciated what he wrote for class. They were messages related to self motivation, discipline, hard work and learning. One day, though, he shocked me. What surprised me was I knew that day's quote. He wrote: "Don't go chasing waterfalls. Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to." If you don't know, that's a line from an extremely popular song from the 1990's. At the time, it was one of the biggest songs in the world. How did he know that song, I wondered. He was, after all, an old man--about the same age I am right now. I learned two things from that day that I still carry. As a teenager, I just liked the music I liked. I didn't recognize many of the underlining messages expressed through the art. As a preacher, that's shaped how I view our many artforms. Learning to see those messages has helped me better sense the hopes, dreams, fears and insecurities of our culture. My math teacher gave me another invaluable lesson. I don't know how much he knew of or liked about the music he quoted that day. My impression was he had other musical inclinations. But he recognized the wisdom in what he heard in that song. And learning to hear wisdom in unfamiliar places can be difficult. Think of how Christians felt when the man who not long before had persecuted them for their faith in Jesus was now teaching them about faith in Jesus. Indeed, Saul "confounded" a lot of people. But what great wisdom he offered to anyone willing to listen to such an unfamiliar source. Stay blessed...john