You know you love field trips! When I was growin' up I didn't even care if it was just to go to the park to find bugs, anything and I mean anything to get out of the classroom. And the breaks... spring and Christmas and Thanksgiving... any long weekend or teacher work day... and snow days, anything, I mean anything.... ugggh the classroom.
And then came the "brainstorm"... small at first, then all consuming. Couldn't we learn outside? Why not have all classes at the park or in a canoe, on a creek or hiking a trail or even better... on a ferris wheel or a roller coaster. That's how you'd get kids to learn. You have to get "outside" the box.
Ever heard how to cook a frog?
They say (it'd be real funny if this was some myth) you put the live frog in the cool water and you heat it up real slow and the frog doesn't notice the temp change and suddenly... you got him cooked. Well...I got cooked! That's what happened to me in the classroom. They just kept me in there and suddenly... I couldn't get out! I loved the classroom! Forget the bugs and the roller coasters... I want more classes!
Unless you're Mat Johnson.
Mat's a surgeon in town. He tells me that he had to sit in the classroom for 13 years (K-12), then four more, then five more, then four more... yep, twenty six years in all! Oh my goodness... shoot me, shoot me now. You know what Mat said... no more classroom for me. I'm gonna cut people! Heck, I would too if I had to sit in the classroom for twenty six years.
But that's what we do, huh?
There's the class in a small room with people your age (Sunday School). Then there's the class with music and the loud, exuberant teacher (Sunday morning worship). Then there's the specialty class (training). Then there's the loud guy again (Sunday night). Then there's the midweek class (Do you see the pattern?). We all love and need the classroom. Isn't it possible that we've learned enough in class to DO SOMETHING! I don't know about you but I want to catch some bugs or ride a roller coaster or have a field day or even (gulp)...make a difference in the life of someone who is hurting.
Let's get out and help somebody! Let's reach out beyond our 'comfort zones' and make a friend with someone who doesn't have much money or much hope or anything else that I learned about in all those classes. Don't get me wrong... those classes are useful and necessary... but are they supposed to be all we ever do?
Back to Mat.
What if after those twenty six years they said, "Mat, congratulations you graduated... now go back to class. Huh!? You and I want to save the world, make a difference, help somebody... don't we? Mat didn't sign up to be a student. He signed up to be a surgeon. We weren't created for the classroom. We were "created unto good works which God planned beforehand that we should do them."
Word up... It don't happen in the classroom!
Why don't you take a 'field trip' or two? Use the skill and knowledge that you have learned in class. After all they are "white unto harvest".
BC
1 - read/write comments:
Christ taught and lived His life on 'field trips'. His example to us compels us to leave our comfort zones and to seek out the lonely, the forgotten, the least and the lost in our community...and we can't do that if we stay in 'class'. Too often we get stuck building up 'spiritual muscles' but never put then to use. As a follower of Christ, serving the least and the forgotten in our culture is expected of us.
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