At the beginning of the school year, Rob Myers, Ph.D., assistant professor of mathematics and dean of the division of sciences, was inspired to create his own interpretation of the popular “love passage” from 1 Corinthians 13. Since we are approaching Valentine’s Day we thought it would be an appropriate time to post his version of the passage. Enjoy!

A Professor’s 1 Corinthians 13
by Rob Myers

If I speak with the eloquence of the greatest professors, but do not have love, I might as well just be replaced with an instructional DVD.  And if I have so much experience that I can teach without notes, and if I understand every in and out of my discipline, and if I believe to the bitter end in the value of teaching, but do not have love, don’t bother taking my class.  If I give out reams of review sheets, and I deliver my entire schedule up to my students for office hours, but do not have love, it won’t make a lick of difference ten years from now.

Love accepts another “silly question” without a snappy reply.  Love doesn’t pine over the fact that it’s not as good as Professor Superstar.  It doesn’t trot out its teaching awards for all to admire.  It doesn’t look down on students with poor preparation or talk sarcastically to them.  It doesn’t force its agenda down the throats of others at faculty or committee meetings.  It lets short comments from colleagues slide instead of storing them up as fodder for later.  It doesn’t rejoice when a student “gets what they deserve,” but instead rejoices when they finally “get it.”  Love bears the next class, prays for the next class, prepares for the next class, and endures the next class.

Love never ends.  As for expertise, there’s always something more to learn; as for eloquence, there’s always someone better than you; as for knowledge, it will be outdated in fifty years.  We know some of our discipline and act like we understand the rest, but when Jesus comes in his glory, we’ll really understand the Truth like never before.  When I was a teenager, I thought I knew everything, could do anything, and was penetrable by nothing.  Now I know better.  What we know now is only a glimpse of what’s to come, like a whiteboard that’s been smudged.  When Christ comes, my deficiencies will become nothing in the face of the One who knows me utterly.

For now faith, hope, and love all see me through the next semester, but the greatest of these is Love.