Scripts or Outlines?

Friday 3/2/2012 6:00 AM

I teach mathematics.  Many people view mathematics as a bunch of formulas that need to be remembered and equations that need to be manipulated using unforgiving rules.  Some are better at memorizing than others so people of that ilk can excel in math up to a certain point.  I teach calculus and I try to help them understand the general concepts rather than memorizing formulas.  In my Calculus 2 class we learn techniques of integration and in the back cover of the book there are 120 integration formulas.  I tell them that if they continue to memorize everything they should start with the formulas in the back of the book, however, if they know and understand five techniques they can generate all 120 formulas themselves.  Understanding the techniques frees them from being tied to formulas.

Over the course of the past few days I have been finalizing a presentation that I hope to give at a math conference tomorrow.  I know some people who, when they speak, have a printed speech that they either memorize or read verbatim.  I am not that kind of person.  I prefer to have a broad outline of the topics I need to cover and then fill in the details of the outline when I speak, using examples and anecdotes from my personal experience.  I have tried a written speech but it makes me feel like a marionette, tied to and controlled by what is written on the page with no freedom to pursue questions that arise during the course of the presentation or those posed by members of the audience.  The broad outline allows much more freedom to address those kinds of questions but it can also be a bit unnerving because one never knows the exact course the presentation will take.  The outline provides the boundaries but not the specifics.

This morning I read from Psalm 119:33-35 for the fifth time this week but it caught my attention for the first time.  The author writes, “Teach me, Lord, the way of your decrees, that I may follow it to the end.  Give me understanding, so that I may keep your law and obey it with all my heart.  Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight.”  (Emphasis mine.)  Many people, including Christians, view Christianity as a bunch of rules that need to be followed.  If they prayed this prayer they would ask God to teach them the decrees and the commands to which they need to adhere.  Then they would walk around with the list, doing their best to follow each decree.  They wouldn’t drink and they wouldn’t chew and they wouldn’t go with the girls that do.  They would also try to make sure others knew and followed the rules.  The writer of the psalm is looking for general boundaries, not specifics.  Ten verses later in the psalm he describes the result of learning the path and understanding it, “I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts.”  People with lists of dos and don’ts are tied to their lists like marionettes and desire to bind others with the same ropes.  They are like my students who memorize formulas or speakers with a written script.  People who understand the general principles of God’s decrees have freedom as they go through life.  They are free to walk into a bar and strike up a conversation with someone over a beer, listening to their story and sharing the hope they have in Christ.  They are free to interact with those who have been castigated by society and are looking for love in all the wrong places, showing them a better way.

I pray that I can be someone who sees the big picture of God’s grace without getting ensnared by the minutiae.