By JIM NICHOLS

An instructor friend in the religion department got in trouble with administrators because of a teaching technique that is potentially harmful, but overall positive. Despite his problems, I believe it is the way by which God wants us to learn and grow. Learning and growing are not completely positive events when they are in the process of occurring; ultimately, however, they are the only way to become closer to God and to improve as humans. 

Sometimes students beginning a study bring a clean slate; for example, in the field of religion, it is possible to encounter entering students who have little or no religious background. Their family did not engage in routine church worship and their knowledge and appreciation of religious matters is minimal. These students are a joy to deal with because God may possibly be revealed to them for the first time.

Other students enter with a set of knowledge that they have gotten from their background. Much of this may be correct and God-inspired, but it is probable that some of the pieces of information are incomplete or even wrong. Regardless of that, it often occurs that they enter the class with some confidence that this will be easily understood and mastered information. When they are challenged with new slants on the topic or completely new topics, it can be disturbing.

Some students entering my biology classes brought solid biology backgrounds and were eager to add to their knowledge. Students in religion classes may presume that they have had a church background that gave them an unshakable foundation. When that order in their faith is challenged by an instructor, friends, or simple reading, it can be unsettling. 

I do not want to minimize the spiritual danger of beginning to see religious information that conflicts with what I believe. You and I can name individuals who seem to have little interest in God now because they have had their order disturbed and not rebuilt. Some faith destruction occurred without a following faith buildup.

Author Richard Rohr contends that there is an important cycle in growth and that the cycle applies to faith as well as other areas. The cycle is that order leads to disorder which leads to reorder. My grandchildren have amazed me at how they can build one structure with Lego bricks and then take it apart and build something different with the same bricks. This is a manner of learning that occurs routinely in life. Why should it be different with faith?

When nature becomes dormant in autumn, there is a kind of sadness that might come over us. The lushness and green of summer are replaced by browns and tans. Falling leaves emphasize apparent death. Our experience is, however, that this view of death is really a preface to the reorder that will occur in spring. The cycles of nature illustrate order to disorder to reorder in many ways.

A workshop leader in my past said, “Education is subversive.” That last word is so strong that it bothered me then and now, but I understand what he was saying. Perhaps we can soften it a bit and say, “New information can be disturbing, as can be experiences.” The question becomes, “What will we build with this new set of information and experiences?”

I frequently asked my students what was their first experience with death? Many referred to the loss of a family pet. Clearly, this represented a major emotional and informational event in a young life. Similarly, high school mission trips (especially to foreign countries) provide strong tests of the prejudices and knowledge gaps for many students.

These blows to our expectations do not end when we become adults. When I think back to where I was spiritually just ten years ago, I can see that I have changed. Some things I believed to be fundamental then are subservient in my faith now. They still sit there in my history as molders of me today, but they have been supplemented by new experiences and new teachers and teaching events. 

Both nature and scripture teach us that death and disorder can and will be turned into new life. 

Jim Nichols is a retired Abilene Christian University biology professor and current hospice chaplain