Monday evening I walked into a class I wasn't even signed up for because I got an email about it. It's a perspectives course on Christian work throughout the world. The topic was missionaries to unsent peoples. As I was walking into my church, into my Sunday school room where we've been lately pouring over the issue of creation vs. evolution, guess who was standing there to register me in the class?
I shook my head in disbelief as I approached. It was obvious God was up to something. I smiled at him and said, "You're Mr. Shrout, right?" He was indeed.
He is my science teacher from when I was in 7th and 8th grades. Amazing. This is just another step in almost a year's worth of development that God is making for me in my life when it comes to the issue of creationism vs. evolution.
In fact I've been trying to write this blog post since June 12th.
It all started when I was in my friend April's church last spring, visiting one of their services. An older gentleman walked up to me afterward and said to me with a smile, "I know who you are. You're... Michele, right?"
"Yes," I said. I looked at him for awhile. I recognized his face and I smiled big. "I know you too...!" I trailed off. I couldn't figure out how I knew him. He filled in the blanks.
He said, "You were in my science class."
"Yes, I remember. You're... Mr. ..," and I almost said it as he did, "Mr. Haight." I smiled bigger and said, "Oh my gosh! I remember being in your class! Biology at North Salem High."
He said, "I remember you were really good at science, seemed to know a lot of the answers, that's what I recall about you." I smiled and I tried to shuck his compliment away but he continued. "I remember one day I was upset with the whole class because of how badly they did on a test. You raised your hand and said, 'It's our fault for how we did.' And that made me feel like you were defending me, it was nice of you."
I thought about that. Coming to think of it later, I can remember that. What I remember more is how on one time I took advantage of his trust. There was a kid who was doing something naughty, and I advocated for him. Looking back, the kid didn't deserve my advocacy. Mr. Haight looked me in the eye about it and I felt it. That's my memory.
I remember something else. The funny kid in class was eating gummy bears. When Mr. Haight turned his back to the class to write on the board, this guy would take a juicy bear out of his mouth and throw it full-force toward the wall or the ceiling. It would stick. Mr. Haight turned around and couldn't tell why people were laughing. Ohh, the naughty things kids do! But Mr. Haight was a great teacher. He cared about the kids. That's why I remember him so fondly.
I told Mr. Haight as he was before me now, "I remember in class that sophomore year you had a creation vs. evolution debate for the students by the students. I was on the evolution side. I remember it was so odd to me that people used the Bible at all, or would argue things like that. I thought everyone should or did believe in evolution. That was the beginning of my awareness that there could be something else. It was a big deal to me."
He didn't respond too much to that. He moved on to ask me about my kids who I had brought with me. He's been a Christian all this time, and a wonderful one at that. How fascinating! No wonder he wanted to have that debate in the classroom!
Fast forward to May.
My daughter Grace goes to an orientation for entering Middle School - Claggett. I see this teacher at the school, and I think he looks familiar but it doesn't click in my thinking. Later they announce "Life Science class is taught by Mr. Shrout." What! That was my science teacher when I was in Middle School (Whiteaker). Then I realized who I had seen in the hall.
I find out over the summer that he is retiring that year. So my daughter will not have the opportunity to have him for Life Science like I did growing up.
I wondered if he had recognized me. I had seen him coming out of the school once or twice since May. So this thought of actually getting to talk to him too has been building in my mind since last year.
One of my science teachers was a Christian, how neat! But what if my other science teacher was not? Mr. Shrout was my most favorite teacher of all. He was my teacher when I kind of discovered that I loved science, and wanted to do stuff in science for the rest of my life. That's the way I completely felt back then.
If I met him, what would I say? All these months, I wondered. I tried to explore my heart. I could hear some normal questions he might politely ask.
"Did you end up doing something in paleontology?"
"Did you become an anthropologist like you had been thinking about?"
"Are you doing something in science at all?"
My answers:
"No."
"I stay at home with my kids."
"I'm trying to build momentum for something called 'missional communities.'"
"I'm a Christian, now. So, ..?"
And all I could imagine someone saying in reply to that, is, "Oh." And that's where I've never been able to figure out how the rest of my story, goes? What would I say, about my love for science? I feel like, I still love science. I still know everything I once did. It just doesn't mean as much to me. Does that mean anything at all, to someone who teaches science for a living, who invests himself in students so they might become something someday? I can't tell you how I solve the question of what hominid fossils are all about. I don't know the answer between what the Bible says and what the fossil record shows. I don't have enough science to make the Bible a scientific textbook. I'm stuck saying mostly, "I don't know."
Do you see now why I couldn't finish this blog post?
(I even told my arch-nemesis in middle school that I was going to be a paleontologist when I grew up!)
Because of Monday evening, I realize I don't have to finish this blog post. The story ends a little differently. My other science teacher, is also a Christian! Hm.
All of this, was built into this moment, walking into my church and seeing my science teacher standing there. I don't have to try and explain why I'm a Christian, thank God for that! He would know!
I said to him, "I was one of your students." (He probably hears that a lot.)
"Oh, what year?"
I said, "About '92, '91..."
"Hmm," he said.
"I remember one of your jokes. 'Why didn't the moss hang out with the lichen? Because he heard he wasn't a "fungi [pronounced 'fun guy'],'" I repeated to him. He acknowledged.
"Remember, I did special reports on science over the summer because my dad made me study college level Biology? I gave you a paper at the beginning of the year? You asked me to be teacher's aide the following semester? You had me help pass out papers? One time you asked me to transfer dead frogs for dissection from one bucket to another bucket in the back storage room. And I cried and said I couldn't do it?"
He listened and said, "I'm sorry, I don't remember."
I looked at the floor, and tried again. "Remember I wrote down all your jokes you told in class on my book cover?"
His eyes lit up and he said, "Oh, that's YOU?" and took a step back.
"Yes, that's me," I said smiling. "Remember at the end of the year you asked me if you could photocopy my book covers so you could keep all your jokes?"
He replied, "Yes, my son was just wondering where those were. They put on a retirement party for me and he wanted those out as part of a display. I'll have to text him in a little bit and let him know that I met you."
That was wonderful. I was pretty sure my testimony of becoming a Christian would matter because he would remember the textbook covers. But I still don't know what my testimony is, about science.
I remember that I was always raising my hand in class. I remember the other kids eventually got annoyed. They started to say, "Okay Michele just put your hand down" and I would laugh. Kids thought I was teacher's pet. I remember that Mr. Shrout was hilarious. He was so funny. He is humble about how funny he is. Most of his jokes were puns, but I just remember the entire class breaking out into laughter out of nowhere because of him. All the time. I remember dissecting frogs and worms. I remember his green bicycle that he stored in class. Even back then it had a reputation: it was dubbed "the green machine." I had so much fun in that class in 7th grade.
Over the summer my dad used to make me choose a college-level textbook and read it and write reports. So I picked 200-level Biology and studied it. When I got to the end of the summer I had written some papers on things like the evolution of man and chemistry of ATP converted to energy in the bloodstream. I could draw the tree of human evolution and used it for speech class and for random papers in English all through middle school. I knew all about evolution.
In the last few years, I've tried to abandon what I know altogether. Most of the books I read in the last few years about creationism only talk about the hoaxes, they don't really say anything about the thousands of fossils of hominids that are out there to be considered. I guess I'm stuck between two worlds.
I didn't expect to discover that my science teachers were Christians.
I can't explain to you the sense of lostness that I lived in spiritually, growing up. At 17 I saw the movie about what the Bible explains about Jesus. I saw Jesus as strong. And authoritative over creation. Provocative. A leader who meekly gave His life, dying cruelly. He said He did it for me, and for everyone. He depicted how God cared if a bird fell to the earth, and how much more God cared for me. And then, He gave me His kind of JOY. It changed my life. I still didn't understand sin, or God, really. Or what my purpose was. I just knew that I knew the Author. The Origin.
Looking back, now, over all those years of feeling empty and lost, I just feel like God had this big hug, wrapped around me. He was there. All along. Even though I was lost, He was there. His people were there. God was never that far away.
Why did I have to wait to get saved, I wonder? So many people who were saved at the age of 17 have done much to glorify Jesus. Just something I've noticed. Reid Saunders was saved at 17. Billy Graham was saved at 16. The missionary who spoke to us Monday night who went on to give 20 years of his life to the Iteri people, was saved at the age of 17. It is a kind of fervor that is truly annoying to those who are closest to you; they are a people who just won't stop talking about Jesus.
Don't you just love how provocatively God speaks? Like sending my favorite science teacher into my church classroom on Monday night where the day before, we had been discussing evolution. I marvel at God's message to me:
Honey, your science teachers were Christians, just like you.
Thank God for filling in the blanks, showing me His creative presence is so near.
I shook my head in disbelief as I approached. It was obvious God was up to something. I smiled at him and said, "You're Mr. Shrout, right?" He was indeed.
He is my science teacher from when I was in 7th and 8th grades. Amazing. This is just another step in almost a year's worth of development that God is making for me in my life when it comes to the issue of creationism vs. evolution.
In fact I've been trying to write this blog post since June 12th.
It all started when I was in my friend April's church last spring, visiting one of their services. An older gentleman walked up to me afterward and said to me with a smile, "I know who you are. You're... Michele, right?"
"Yes," I said. I looked at him for awhile. I recognized his face and I smiled big. "I know you too...!" I trailed off. I couldn't figure out how I knew him. He filled in the blanks.
He said, "You were in my science class."
"Yes, I remember. You're... Mr. ..," and I almost said it as he did, "Mr. Haight." I smiled bigger and said, "Oh my gosh! I remember being in your class! Biology at North Salem High."
He said, "I remember you were really good at science, seemed to know a lot of the answers, that's what I recall about you." I smiled and I tried to shuck his compliment away but he continued. "I remember one day I was upset with the whole class because of how badly they did on a test. You raised your hand and said, 'It's our fault for how we did.' And that made me feel like you were defending me, it was nice of you."
I thought about that. Coming to think of it later, I can remember that. What I remember more is how on one time I took advantage of his trust. There was a kid who was doing something naughty, and I advocated for him. Looking back, the kid didn't deserve my advocacy. Mr. Haight looked me in the eye about it and I felt it. That's my memory.
I remember something else. The funny kid in class was eating gummy bears. When Mr. Haight turned his back to the class to write on the board, this guy would take a juicy bear out of his mouth and throw it full-force toward the wall or the ceiling. It would stick. Mr. Haight turned around and couldn't tell why people were laughing. Ohh, the naughty things kids do! But Mr. Haight was a great teacher. He cared about the kids. That's why I remember him so fondly.
 |
| Me in 5th grade |
I told Mr. Haight as he was before me now, "I remember in class that sophomore year you had a creation vs. evolution debate for the students by the students. I was on the evolution side. I remember it was so odd to me that people used the Bible at all, or would argue things like that. I thought everyone should or did believe in evolution. That was the beginning of my awareness that there could be something else. It was a big deal to me."
He didn't respond too much to that. He moved on to ask me about my kids who I had brought with me. He's been a Christian all this time, and a wonderful one at that. How fascinating! No wonder he wanted to have that debate in the classroom!
Fast forward to May.
My daughter Grace goes to an orientation for entering Middle School - Claggett. I see this teacher at the school, and I think he looks familiar but it doesn't click in my thinking. Later they announce "Life Science class is taught by Mr. Shrout." What! That was my science teacher when I was in Middle School (Whiteaker). Then I realized who I had seen in the hall.
I find out over the summer that he is retiring that year. So my daughter will not have the opportunity to have him for Life Science like I did growing up.
I wondered if he had recognized me. I had seen him coming out of the school once or twice since May. So this thought of actually getting to talk to him too has been building in my mind since last year.
One of my science teachers was a Christian, how neat! But what if my other science teacher was not? Mr. Shrout was my most favorite teacher of all. He was my teacher when I kind of discovered that I loved science, and wanted to do stuff in science for the rest of my life. That's the way I completely felt back then.
If I met him, what would I say? All these months, I wondered. I tried to explore my heart. I could hear some normal questions he might politely ask.
"Did you end up doing something in paleontology?"
"Did you become an anthropologist like you had been thinking about?"
"Are you doing something in science at all?"
My answers:
"No."
"I stay at home with my kids."
"I'm trying to build momentum for something called 'missional communities.'"
"I'm a Christian, now. So, ..?"
And all I could imagine someone saying in reply to that, is, "Oh." And that's where I've never been able to figure out how the rest of my story, goes? What would I say, about my love for science? I feel like, I still love science. I still know everything I once did. It just doesn't mean as much to me. Does that mean anything at all, to someone who teaches science for a living, who invests himself in students so they might become something someday? I can't tell you how I solve the question of what hominid fossils are all about. I don't know the answer between what the Bible says and what the fossil record shows. I don't have enough science to make the Bible a scientific textbook. I'm stuck saying mostly, "I don't know."
Do you see now why I couldn't finish this blog post?
(I even told my arch-nemesis in middle school that I was going to be a paleontologist when I grew up!)
Because of Monday evening, I realize I don't have to finish this blog post. The story ends a little differently. My other science teacher, is also a Christian! Hm.
All of this, was built into this moment, walking into my church and seeing my science teacher standing there. I don't have to try and explain why I'm a Christian, thank God for that! He would know!
I said to him, "I was one of your students." (He probably hears that a lot.)
"Oh, what year?"
I said, "About '92, '91..."
"Hmm," he said.
"I remember one of your jokes. 'Why didn't the moss hang out with the lichen? Because he heard he wasn't a "fungi [pronounced 'fun guy'],'" I repeated to him. He acknowledged.
"Remember, I did special reports on science over the summer because my dad made me study college level Biology? I gave you a paper at the beginning of the year? You asked me to be teacher's aide the following semester? You had me help pass out papers? One time you asked me to transfer dead frogs for dissection from one bucket to another bucket in the back storage room. And I cried and said I couldn't do it?"
He listened and said, "I'm sorry, I don't remember."
I looked at the floor, and tried again. "Remember I wrote down all your jokes you told in class on my book cover?"
His eyes lit up and he said, "Oh, that's YOU?" and took a step back.
"Yes, that's me," I said smiling. "Remember at the end of the year you asked me if you could photocopy my book covers so you could keep all your jokes?"
He replied, "Yes, my son was just wondering where those were. They put on a retirement party for me and he wanted those out as part of a display. I'll have to text him in a little bit and let him know that I met you."
That was wonderful. I was pretty sure my testimony of becoming a Christian would matter because he would remember the textbook covers. But I still don't know what my testimony is, about science.
I remember that I was always raising my hand in class. I remember the other kids eventually got annoyed. They started to say, "Okay Michele just put your hand down" and I would laugh. Kids thought I was teacher's pet. I remember that Mr. Shrout was hilarious. He was so funny. He is humble about how funny he is. Most of his jokes were puns, but I just remember the entire class breaking out into laughter out of nowhere because of him. All the time. I remember dissecting frogs and worms. I remember his green bicycle that he stored in class. Even back then it had a reputation: it was dubbed "the green machine." I had so much fun in that class in 7th grade.
Over the summer my dad used to make me choose a college-level textbook and read it and write reports. So I picked 200-level Biology and studied it. When I got to the end of the summer I had written some papers on things like the evolution of man and chemistry of ATP converted to energy in the bloodstream. I could draw the tree of human evolution and used it for speech class and for random papers in English all through middle school. I knew all about evolution.
In the last few years, I've tried to abandon what I know altogether. Most of the books I read in the last few years about creationism only talk about the hoaxes, they don't really say anything about the thousands of fossils of hominids that are out there to be considered. I guess I'm stuck between two worlds.
I didn't expect to discover that my science teachers were Christians.
I can't explain to you the sense of lostness that I lived in spiritually, growing up. At 17 I saw the movie about what the Bible explains about Jesus. I saw Jesus as strong. And authoritative over creation. Provocative. A leader who meekly gave His life, dying cruelly. He said He did it for me, and for everyone. He depicted how God cared if a bird fell to the earth, and how much more God cared for me. And then, He gave me His kind of JOY. It changed my life. I still didn't understand sin, or God, really. Or what my purpose was. I just knew that I knew the Author. The Origin.
 |
| Me, age 17 |
Looking back, now, over all those years of feeling empty and lost, I just feel like God had this big hug, wrapped around me. He was there. All along. Even though I was lost, He was there. His people were there. God was never that far away.
Why did I have to wait to get saved, I wonder? So many people who were saved at the age of 17 have done much to glorify Jesus. Just something I've noticed. Reid Saunders was saved at 17. Billy Graham was saved at 16. The missionary who spoke to us Monday night who went on to give 20 years of his life to the Iteri people, was saved at the age of 17. It is a kind of fervor that is truly annoying to those who are closest to you; they are a people who just won't stop talking about Jesus.
Don't you just love how provocatively God speaks? Like sending my favorite science teacher into my church classroom on Monday night where the day before, we had been discussing evolution. I marvel at God's message to me:
Honey, your science teachers were Christians, just like you.
Thank God for filling in the blanks, showing me His creative presence is so near.
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