Interactions with God #45

Don Kinghorn, as I mentioned earlier, was one of the leaders at the church we attended.  An elder, if I remember correctly.  Don, was the first to talk me into teaching Sunday school.  It all started with a joint class that Martha and I did for some young ones.  That wasn’t too difficult.  Martha really ran the whole thing, while I played with the little ones.  There wasn’t really any teaching, just crafts and maybe a video.  So when that was done, Don asked me to teach a class on my own, teenagers…how hard could it be?  HA! HA! HA!  Ignorance is bliss!

So there I was teaching a Sunday school class of three to four teenagers.  I was given teaching materials made by a company called David C. Cook.  To this day, I do not have fond memories of that stuff.  It was basic, horribly watered down, garbage.   Sure, it did teach biblical stuff, but since the company’s market was pretty much ANY church, they did not get into anything interesting, no, not at all.  To alleviate mine, and their utter boredom, I began to add to the material out of my own knowledge.  This is where I learned to let God teach through me and it was an absolute blast!

Teaching my own material started with this interaction.  It happened in late 1988 or early 1989.  Martha and I were engaged, but not yet married.  My Sunday school class had grown to five teenagers.  They were nice kids, but as I said, the material was boring them to near tears.  I tried to be sympathetic, but I was also growing frustrated at their lack of interest. 

You see, I had seen God move.  I knew He was real and really awesome.  I just wanted them to see too.  I still to this day, do not understand why everyone doesn’t storm the gates of heaven just to find out more.  I really don’t get it.    

So with their boredom and my frustration, class after class ended with me scolding them.  “Stop throwing paper wads!” “Stop, tearing up the worksheets!” Stop hitting, spitting, pushing, etc… I hated this and so did they. But God always has a plan, and even the stupid things we do work in concert with it. All to show us who He is. 

On my way into class one Sunday morning.  God told me to ask them all a question.  The question was. “How would you feel if your best friend came up to you one day and said, “You know, I don’t really like you. The only reason I hang out with you is because my mother makes me.”  Yes, a very strange question indeed.  Yet this word from God was really strong.  It was one of those, I “know” it was Him words.  So I started out the class with that question and wrote their responses on the white board.

Their responses were rather animated. They ranged from: “I would be sad”, “I would hate it!”, “I would hate them!”, “I would kill them!”, “I would kill their mother!” and of course “I wouldn’t be their friend anymore.”  I wrote all of their responses on the board.  That was it.  I had nothing more.  That was all God told me to do and I had absolutely no idea why.  I guess I expected something else to come to me as I did it.  Nope, nothing. So I went back to the David C. Cook garbage…dull, dull, and dull.

Ok, so if you know the bible, you will realize how painful this became.  The David C. Cook lesson that week was on the cleansing of the temple by Nehemiah.  If you have only partially read the bible and considered numbers hard to get through, you have never read Nehemiah…ugh. Without really solid bible knowledge, you cannot see the deeper meaning hidden in the book. Without that understanding, the book of Nehemiah is the worst book for entertainment value.  The lesson was PAINFULLY dull.  As we approached the end of the class, after my one hundredth “Stop doing that!”, I began to lose my temper.  Yes, I did.  I got really mad.

I really did understand why they were acting that way.  I would have done the same thing at their age.  Yet, somehow, to me, their lack of interest and goofing around was just disrespectful to God.  I threw my teachers book on the table and I went into a rant.

“You guys are not listening! You are being rude and disruptive! You sit here week after week and tear up the material, fuss and poke at each other, not caring at all about what is being taught.  I am wasting my time here! All I want to do is show you how important God is! It is up to you to seek it out!  But you don’t care at all.  You don’t even want to be here!!! The only reason you come at all is because your mother’s made you! How do you think God feels about that?!  I will tell you how God feels about it!! He feels THAT!!!”

I found myself pointing to the white board.

Now, the surprise and wide eyes now on the faces of every teenager in the room did not compare to the surprise inside of me.  I tell you, I had no idea. I had no plan, It just happened. It was amazing.  It was God and we all knew it.

Needless to say, the behavior improved dramatically going forward. After that interaction, I went to the pastor and asked if I could teach my own stuff.  This was the pastor who didn’t like me much, so I was rather surprised when he agreed.  His only requirement was to type up what I taught and put it in his box. The plan was to go over it before and/or after each lesson.  Mentoring, that is what I wanted.  But it never happened. So, I just taught what God gave me each week.  Learning and growing in the process.

The class exploded to 40 kids in just a few months.  We ended up in the secondary auditorium just because there were so many. I taught that class for 5 years, until the pastor’s strange dislike for me came to a head.  But that is another story…