The end of the semester nears; my classes are winding down this week. Teaching university students can be a joy one minute and a frustration the next. To any of my students reading this, let me emphasize that I like you and that I believe I am carrying out God’s will to be there. Some days are quite fulfilling, and I can’t imagine doing anything else.
But there are obstacles to overcome, in general, with the present generation. All that talk about short attention spans and apathy is all too often real. There are times when I feel like I have to be an entertainer to keep their attention. Boring one’s students seems to be the greatest possible sin.
Not that I think I’m all that boring, but one definitely has to be called by God to continue on the “down” days. My desire is to bring new information to them that will cause them to think more seriously about God’s claim on their lives. At the very least, I would like them to grasp key principles to help them analyze the trends in our culture. One of the reasons, though, why the current generation may not be up to speed on these principles may be the quality of the professors they are forced to take in their courses:
It’s a long uphill struggle, and it has been for the twenty-three years I’ve taught at this level. The society overall is no longer very attuned to eternal truths, or even the idea of truth. We want to be entertained instead:
Timeless truth is a hard sell nowadays, but I’m grateful for the opportunities I have to explain how that truth applies to history, politics, government, and the culture. When you know God’s call, it makes all the difference.