I Owe It To You

I am actually in the southern part of India this morning, at an Institute of learning, here for a graduation service and excited that this evening is the graduation for the students who have spent 3 years honing their craft and getting ready to go out into the world and see how equipped they are to face and embrace the things that God has called them into this world to do. But, as you can imagine, every time you revisit a place, you end up reminiscing. I came in last evening and I have been reminiscing – walking around chapels, halls – thinking about my own days at graduate school. I remembered professors and how we picked the classes that we wanted to attend. We would enquire of seniors who had taken those particular subjects before, and ask them how they found a particular professor. If they wanted to be kind, they would hedge a little bit with their answer; if they wanted to be blunt, they would tell us to avoid the class if possible. But, invariably, some of them would say, "That professor is really a good person!" Inherent in that statement was a clear indication was that you needed to avoid this class because what they were saying was that this person was a good person but not a great teacher.

I remember when my son was in the 12^th grade in a boarding school. This school got a couple of professors who came in just to teach for 3 years. They, a husband and wife, had been very successful in the corporate world, working with a multi-national company, but had decided to leave and invest in students for 3 years. They taught economics and my son took that class. Till that point, he had absolutely no interest in economics. But being taught by these 2 changed him. He was so challenged that he went on to have a deep love for it, took it as his major in undergrad school, did very well, topped his class, wrote a paper that was published in a college magazine – all because for 1 year, he had the opportunity of being taught by really gifted people who had decided to invest in students.

 

Trevor Butterworth said, "The history of influence is the history of imagination, passion, hard work and belief." That's what it took – the imagination of this couple to say, "Let's take a 3 year hiatus from the corporate world," and they came into class with passion. They put in the hard work; they would challenge the students, take queries, give real-life examples from the corporate world. They believed in every one of the students. I don't know how many more of that class went on to take economics as their main field, but its influence is something that is so good and inspirational.

I came across a commencement speech by a speaker at a graduation service. In it he says, "I can remember one particular teacher who taught me in Grade 5 at the age of 10. His name was Shri Sivasubramaniam Iyer, and he was one of the great teachers in our school. All of us loved to attend his classes. Once he was teaching about birds' flight. He drew a diagram of a bird on the blackboard depicting the wings, tail and body structure with the head. He explained how birds create the lift and fly. He also explained how they change direction while flying. For nearly 25 minutes, he gave us information about lift, drag, how birds fly in a formation of 10, 20 or 30. At the end of the class, he asked whether we understood how birds fly. I put up my hand and said that I did not."

"This great teacher did not get upset. Instead he said that we would all go out to the seashore. That evening, the whole class was at the sea shore in Rameswaram, where the birds were flying around chirping. He showed the birds flying in formation of 10 to 20. We saw the marvelous formation of birds with a purpose and we were all amazed. He asked us to see how the birds look when they fly. We saw the wings flapping, the twisting tail, how the birds flew in the direction they wanted. Then he asked us the question, where the engine was and how it was powered. It was powered by its own life and the motivation of what it wants. All these aspects were explained to us within 15 minutes. We all understood the whole dynamics of birds and how they fly from this practical example. One teacher took the trouble to input into the students and it transformed my life. I went on to an engineering college, became a rocket engineer, and aerospace engineer and technologist." This speaker went on, not only to become a scientist, but also to become the twelfth President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, all because one teacher, named Shri Sivasubramaniam Iyer inspired him at the age of 10, and the rest is history.

Influence! People are able to come along side us and inspire us to do amazing things. I wonder whether you have somebody in your life who has been key in influencing you. Have you acknowledged that person, let them know that you're on that path because they put you on that path many years ago?

Rosalind Franklin is a name that is not well known. However, we've all heard of James Watson and Francis Crick. Why? They received the Nobel Prize in 1962 for their discovery of the structure of DNA. But, Rosalind Franklin was really the first person who discovered it. She was described by her peers as a genius. She exposed herself to maximum amounts of radiation to try to get the best possible x-ray photograph of a strand of DNA. She died of cancer at the age of 37, but her image of the double helix provided the crucial evidence that Watson and Crick needed to complete their model. But neither of the scientists acknowledged her work when they received the Nobel Prize. How sad! The person who was responsible for their glory was not acknowledged by them in their moment of glory.

This made me think – how often we take the influence of people for granted. Do we take a moment in time to call or write a letter or email saying, "You touched my life and changed it? You inspired me and it's been a different life since." That made me think about our lives and who has inspired us and whether we take that inspiration and make something of it. Maybe there's somebody in your life who has inspired you. Maybe you come from very humble beginnings, yet it was one person who said that they believed in you and were willing to invest in you by maybe getting you into a school or paying your tuition. Maybe today is the day that you pick up the phone or write and tell them that you want to say who they played an important part in changing your life.

Maybe that embryonic seed is still lying dormant in your life. Somebody birthed it many years ago and you've been wondering whether you should or should not go with it. It's an idea, something that can bring positive change, that can help. Maybe this is the time for you to begin to take those steps to see those things fulfilled. We often think that we need to have all our ducks in a row before we can do something with our lives. In the Bible, many times God says to us, "You take the first step, because that's the step of faith." That's the step that says – I'm willing to go out on a limb. And when we go out on that limb, God is always there to help us because He is actually the dream-giver. He uses people to inspire us, but He is the dream-giver.

Maybe today is your opportunity to do something with the tremendous potential that is within you or within people around you. Either way, I think, today could be the day.

Can I pray with you? Almighty God, help us to be the kind of people You want us to be. Help us to search deep and ask those questions of our life, whether we are in fact, fulfilling the potential that You placed within us. Or if we are, Lord, whether there are people around us who need an encouraging word or a helping hand to be the kind of people that they ought to be. And if there are such people, Lord help us to be tools in Your hand to help bring those people to full purpose and fulfillment and fruition. In Jesus' precious name, we pray. Amen.