For the month of November I’m participating in a daily gratitude challenge posted by the journaling app that I use, Day One, and here’s today’s prompt:

What teacher or mentor has had a positive influence on my life?

I’ve had a few teachers who have left a positive influence in my life. In elementary school one of the few male teachers I had, Mr. Marks read chapter books to us like James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was probably my first experience that I remember with chapter books and being read to. Another elementary teacher, Mrs. Austin, would also be our music teacher in middle school, but I remember her because we did a lot of special craft projects like I made a large scrap book on the Apollo space missions and one about Benito Juarez (I still have both projects). 

In high school I had Mr. Mitchell for Drafting/Engineering and Architecture classes. Drafting/Architecture was my elective all four years and I had Mr. Mitchell for at least two of the years (maybe three). He had a very nonplussed attitude about everything and was very focused on the quality of our work and not some artificial grade. We showed what we knew or our skill level based on the drawings we turned in. I actually enrolled in summer school after graduation so that I could finish my three-point perspective drawing of my senior project. 

My first year at Loyola Marymount University I had the privilege of attending my first religious studies classes from Father Herbert Ryan. A brilliant world class scholar who knew how to work with freshman with no to minimal academic experiences period, much less in the area of religion. I learned how my own crazy Jesus Freak experiences might have historical precedence with the mystics and saints from previous ages and at the same time recognized that there was nothing simple about understanding scripture or any of the writings through the ages. It very much blew up my “Calvary Chapel” approach to religion and the Bible. 

Thus, I had a very different mindset when I began my biblical studies work at Biola University. Biola itself in the late 1970s was going through it own transitions moving from a Bible college to university. A lot of the lower division/intro Bible courses were being taught by the old guard with xeroxed curriculum where we followed along the lectures and filled out the blanks in the printed handouts/materials. The upper division courses offered better opportunities for academic studies. I took several courses from Old Testament Professor Ron Pierce, whom I appreciated for his ability to work in such a restrictive conservative environment and pursue his own scholarly objectives. I think he was still working toward completing his PhD work in Theology and probably influenced me to go to Fuller Seminary for an advanced degree in Theology. 

I’m beginning to see that I’ve gone to a lot of schools and had a lot of professors. Fuller Seminary, Cal State Fullerton, Chapman University and Pepperdine (masters and doctorate…), I learned something important each step along the way. After a while, as I got older, the nature of my relationship with my professors changed a bit from my naive freshman years to being almost colleagues (I’m thinking about you, Professor Sparky). 

I wasn’t at Fuller long enough to develop relationships with my professors (or classmates). I enjoyed my classes from Dr. Colin Brown. Really. I enjoyed studying “Kierkegaard” with Dr. Brown. I think about Brown and Pierce and Ryan when I hear my atheist friends shout that all believers are ignorant idiots. Far from it, my friends. You can disagree with their theology, but you have no idea what you’re talking about when you attempt to claim the intelligence higher ground. 

Funny that I went from studying Kierkegaard to working on a Journalism degree at CSUF (actually I started my second B.A. as an anthropology major…) to becoming an elementary school teacher. I know that there’s a story there. But I’m supposed to be remembering the teachers who influenced me… Really, all of them, on some level had an influence. It may not have been the message they thought they were sharing, but I learned something at every stop along the journey (even the paint-by-numbers theology courses at Biola). Thank you.