My Teacher the Preacher

“Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect willof God.” Romans 12:2, HCSB.

The unbelievable, transforming power of God in a person’s life is an incredible thing to behold, of that I have no doubt.  The issue with me is that often I just wish God would speed things up a bit, especially in the lives of those closest to me. 

Sometimes progress appears to happen so slowly that I conclude there is none at all, and I mentally place someone in the “non-transformable” category.  My language teacher, Mr. R. is one example. 

In 2001, Mr. R. was assigned as my new teacher.  I had no choice in the matter, and given my druthers, Mr. R. would not have been my first choice.  At the time, he was not a Christian, nor did his actions show even a hint of moving in that direction.  He would often show up for our daily lessons smelling of beer or whiskey, his rheumy eyes bloodshot from the excess of drinking the night before.  In the middle of a lesson he’d often scoot closer to me so as to better demonstrate the proper pronunciation of troublesome vowels, and his breath was a malodorous bouquet of Coors beer, cigarettes, and a common condiment made from fermented fish oil.   In addition, Mr. R. would often wear his favorite T-shirt to our lessons, further confirming my forgone conclusion that he was “non-transformable” person.  It isn’t that I’m overly fashion conscious, mind you, but the pair of voluptuous and topless mermaids emblazoned across the chest of his T-shirt were a bit of a distraction.  

And so it was that day after day, Mr. R. would come for my lesson, and day after day I’d struggle with just getting through the lesson itself.  Then one day, I felt moved to adopt the Bible as our language textbook. I didn’t have enough language ability to explain anything in it, but it was at least a place to start.  To my surprise, Mr. R. was mesmerized by what we read there, and also to my surprise, the Bible did a great job of explaining itself to Mr. R.  “Ooooh, veeeery interesting,” he’d say over and over to himself as we studied the verses together.  And wouldn’t you know it, several months later Mr. R. gave his life to Christ.  A man I thought was non-transformable had been transformed. 

I ran into Mr. R. almost a year later.  I couldn’t believe what God had done with the man.  While we were gone, he had been busy sharing with his friends all of the things he’d learned in the Bible.  As a result, many of his friends had given their lives to Christ.  In fact, there were so many that the little group of believers had formed the core of a new church start. 

As I marveled at the passion and conviction with which Mr. R’s shared the Gospel, my thoughts couldn’t help but drift back to the old Mr. R. that I used to know – and his former days of Coors, Camels, and mermaid T-shirts. The Mr. R. standing before me that day was indeed a different man – a man transformed by the transforming power of a loving God who’d chosen to use this once ignoble vessel for far more noble purposes. 

Mr. R. wasn’t the only man transformed there that day.  There was at least one other that I know of, a former language student, a student whose faith when put to the test was often found lacking.  My former teacher had now become my teacher, the preacher.  And through that preacher’s message, I learned that just as God was still working on Mr. R., so also was He still working on me and that I too, would do well to not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of my mind.

Written by a career missionary serving in the Pacific Rim

Pacific Rim is a region of the International Mission Board, SBC.