PLEASING OUR PROFESSOR

I have been so hung up on making sure what I write is perfectly edited that it has hindered me from writing at all. This probably needs editing:

I was half asleep listening to the local Christian radio station one work day morning, about to hit the snooze button, when in between songs they were asking the question of listeners: What is God teaching you right now? What school are you in?

A lady called in and said, “I’m in Abiding 101”
The hostess asked, “What does that look like?”
The lady answered, “Well, God is teaching me that I need to stay close to Him, stay in His word, pray, etc. He is my source. I need to depend completely on Him”
She went on to explain some of what God was teaching her about how to abide.
The hostess replied, “I think you are going to pass with flying colors.”
The lady said, “YOU ARE NOT THE PROFESSOR!”

Let those words hit you like a ton of bricks, like they did me! I was now wide awake. The ladies response to the hostess was shocking and rude. Yet I admired her for the clarity she had about the only One she needs to please. God is her professor and He is the One who will grade her. She will be encouraged by Him when He passes her, if He passes her.

It is so easy to receive encouraging words from people! My response to the hostess may have been, “Thank you”, not even stopping to wonder on what basis she had said it. Probably because it is nice to know how other people are responding to what we say. It is encouraging to see ourselves from someone else's point of view. We need the encouragement sometimes, because it is difficult to see the growth and/or changes in ourselves. We need the feedback. I would not have analyzed her statement or asked myself why she said it.

I am not saying that receiving encouragement is a bad thing. However, we need to think about what the root is for our need of it. How much weight do we put on the feedback from people? Are we seeking encouragement from people because we aren’t intimate enough with God to get it directly from Him? We need to think about where our focus is and whom it is we are truly trying to please! The lady did not share about “Abiding 101” in order to get a pat on the back. We don’t know her motives, but we do know her only focus was on pleasing God and no one else.

The loud point was made, YOU ARE NOT MY PROFESSOR. He is the one I need to please. He will judge whether I’m doing a good job or not. He will encourage me. His opinion about how I am doing is the only opinion I can truly listen to. If I listen to your opinion and believe I am doing a great job when in reality I am not, then I’m in deep trouble with my professor. I will fail the test and have to take it over.

An analogy is if I receive an assignment from my professor at my local university to write a term paper, I also receive the guidelines and the requirements. The “rules” if you will. After the paper has been written I may want you to read it before I turn it in. I may need your opinion, your encouragement, and your corrections. However, since you are not aware of the guidelines that I have received or of the requirements that the professor has laid down, you will read my term paper based on your own guidelines, your own requirements and your own point of view. Also, you may not catch all my grammatical or punctuation errors. You are not able to read what I wrote from the viewpoint of my professor. You are a friend who offers me encouragement from your point of view.

So I turn in my term paper based on your affirmation. My professor thinks it is poorly written, that the punctuation and grammar are horrible. He fails me. Why did I fail? Because my focus was on pleasing you, not on pleasing my professor, even though I knew full well what was expected of me. I made a choice to listen to your valued opinion rather than to follow my professor’s guidelines, requirements and rules for writing as my plumb line.

We can’t compare ourselves to how others are doing either.

The other side of the coin is that we like to encourage other people when we see the changes they are making in their lives due to obedience to their “professor”. When we see growth, we may make a comment about it.

The hostess was just making a statement of encouragement from her point of view. There is another way to look at it. It was arrogant of her to assume that the lady was going to pass with flying colors. On what basis was she able to make that assumption? It was based on what the lady said she was learning, but not by what she was living, because she did not share anything about how she was living out what she was learning. It is very easy for people to talk about what they have learned and quite another thing for them to live it. At the same time, it is very easy for us to talk about what we have learned and quite another to actually be living it.

So the best person to go straight to the reality of what we are living is our Professor, God Himself. He is the perfect judge and His ways keep us on the narrow path. His guidelines are truth.

It is not a bad thing for us to encourage each other, but this situation made me think about making sure my encouragement lines up with what God is doing in someone’s life.

There are many ways to look at this short conversation.
1. Look only to the Lord for approval, encouragement
2. Don’t receive things people say unless you know they are from the heart of God
3. It is sometimes arrogant of us to tell people they are doing a good job, when in fact they are not being obedient to the Lord. We have no way of knowing what God is doing in someone’s life. Our comments may be stumbling blocks to them if they are not in alignment and if the person listens to us instead of to their professor.