Daily Lesson for October 5, 2017

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 105 verse 41:

41 He opened the rock, and water flowed, 

so the river ran in the dry places.

And Matthew chapter 7 verses 28 and 29:

28 Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching,29for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.

Yesterday I read that a woman named Mary Hatfield died in Lubbock. A friend shared her obituary on Facebook and I recognized the woman in the obituary photograph. She was my first professor in college English and the first person I remember who made me think I might be a good writer. 

In my first thesis paper for Dr. Hatfield, she gutted it with her merciless red sword.  I had not followed any of the format rules for paper assignments in her class. I had not even known there were such rules. But then, at the bottom of the last page, Dr. Hatfield wrote in the same blood-red ink that she thought I had some interesting ideas and asked if she could keep my paper to show other classes. I did not much think of myself as a writer. All I really wanted to be was a Phi Delt. But that small little word of affirmation from Dr. Hatfield, that calling out, was the first step down to the path of the devotional you are now reading. 

In today’s Psalm the LORD opens the rock in the wilderness and water pours forth. Who knew there was even such water within?  No one, until it was called out. 

And in today’s Gospel, Jesus speaks as a teacher with authority. The Greek says he spoke from his “ousia”.  “Ousia” is the same word from whence we get our word “essence”. Jesus spoke from his essence, from the substance and well-spring of his own being. This is what gave him authority as a teacher. 

Whether at school or church, good teachers speak from the deep place of their own being. They speak from a place of inner authority, from an inner well-spring, from a place of having lived in and with the material they are teaching. And, they see the inner well-spring in their students and call it forth. Good teachers help their students to discover the water of life within them. 

Dr. Hatfield was a good teacher. I am grateful for her.