It's not about getting an "A" (although I do like "A's"!)

I've been a student and I've been a teacher.  Sometimes simultaneously.  I really enjoy both.  While each role has its unique rewards, many are shared by both student and teacher, such as:

• those moments when real learning takes place and there's this incredible sense of connection and transformation

• when a quiet student finally speaks out in class and everyone realizes what a gift it was

• when the weather outside is absolutely beautiful, so the tennis courts become our classroom 

• when the semester is over, all papers are turned in, exams taken, and all grades submitted.  

But sometimes, the rewards are a bit more one-sided, such as giving and taking exams.  It is by far more fun to give an exam than to take one.  Now if you ace the exam, then it might be more rewarding as a student.  But almost universally, from a teacher's point of view, it's more fun to give than to receive.

There's an art to putting together a good exam.  I'm not claiming to be good at this art.  A good exam engages students with the material learned, making them process, analyze, and apply it more broadly.  If you can create an exam that can do all this AND is easy to grade, you're not just an artist -- you're a Michelangelo (or DaVinci, or Rembrandt, or...) 



I had a professor in college who wrote some very challenging exams.  I still remember them (and it's been many, many years!) His multiple choice questions were legendary.  He had a way of composing them so that you not only had to know the correct answer, but also why the other answers were incorrect -- or what you could do to make the other answers correct -- or why one answer was more "right" than another.  On the day he handed back the exams, we were allowed to "argue" with him over the answers -- arguments which we rarely, if ever, won.   Truthfully, I think he thoroughly enjoyed those days!


In John's Gospel, the disciples gave Jesus a sort of "multiple-choice" question when they encountered a man who was born blind.  Their question had only two possible choices.  "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents?"  The man was blind.  There had to be a reason.  These are the two possible reasons:  A)  the man sinned,  or  B) his parents sinned.

There's a great deal more that could be said about the connection of sin to disease, and I acknowledge the importance of that theological discussion.   But I'm more fascinated with Jesus' response to their multiple choice question. 

"Which is it, Rabbi --  A or B?"  And Jesus responds,  "C."  Jesus rewrote the question!

Isn't that what following Jesus is all about?  We so often see the world, we see our problems, through such limited eyes.   Just like the disciples, we see limited options -- limited possibilities.  And sometimes none of them look promising.  But they're all we have.

Until Jesus enters the picture.  And He rewrites the question.  How can He do that?  Because He is God, that's how.

He turned water into wine.
He gave sight to the blind.
He fed the multitudes with just a few loaves of bread and two fish.
He rose from the dead.
He promises to never leave us -- ever.

Following Jesus means there are ENDLESS possibilities.  Following Jesus is the way of HOPE.  It's not about being right or wrong.  It's about loving Him, loving others, and being open to all the possibilities.