The Narcoleptic Professor

For those of you on facebook you probably know about the "suggested friends" section on your home page.  As I was reading through the various status updates yesterday I noticed that an old professor of mine was a suggested friend (and he still is).  This particular professor is now retired, and rightfully so, since he was teaching when my grandfather attended North Central.  He is probably the most famous professor at NCU, and for several reasons.  First, this guy is a spiritual bear of a man.  If you know him you are probably nodding your head knowingly.  If you don't, just picture Smokey the bear -but replace the hat with a tie and his shovel with a bible... and beat stick (he's old school).  The second reason he is well known is that for about the past 40 years (give or take 30) he has been known as the professor who can be so boring that he, quite literally, puts himself to sleep (ok, maybe it's not boredom that puts him out). 

I myself was in a class, and while standing in front of everyone listening to a presentation, my professor's eyes slowly closed and an odd buzzing noise started in his throat.  Sure enough, the old bear went into hibernation right in front of us.  Two young gentlemen sitting a few rows ahead of me looked at each other, and in an instant grabbed their things and bolted from the room.  The entire class laughed at their audacity (secretly wanting to run after them).  The laughter must have shaken the professor from his sleep because he suddenly roared back to life.  He quickly scanned the room and saw the missing seats.  He gruffly asked for the names of the two escape artists, and after receiving them said: "Well those two have just failed my class.  Make sure you do not follow in their footsteps."  What!  This guy basically failed these two guys for not wanting to stick around to watch the drool soak his tie.   It just doesn't seem fair.

Whether or not it's fair isn't what I'm interested in.  I am interested in how he reacted.  Given a difficult situation how do you react?  The truth is my old professor was most likely extremely embarrassed by his little bear-nap (he was nothing like a cat) and reacted out of his embarrassment.  We all do the same thing from time to time.  If we feel like we are being treated unfairly or taken advantage of, we snap.  The problem is that we need to be different. 

Proverbs 25:28 says: "A man who does not control his temper is like a city whose wall is broken down."  I think that if there is one way that Christians should always stand out (and rarely do), it should be how we react and respond in difficult situations.  Instead of lashing out, or blaming others, we need to remember to show love, patience, and faith.  We need to trust that everything will work out, because it will. 

Difficult situations happen all the time at work, or church, or home.  No matter how bad something is I know that God will work it out.  That's nice for me, but what about the other person?  What does my reaction to them show them about God's grace and love for us?  What does it say about my character?Why do Christians fight, scream, whine, and complain just as much as everyone else?

Instead of slandering and complaining about a certain politician - we should pray for them because we are told that they are placed in authority by God.

Instead of giving someone the evil eye in a parking lot for cutting you off - we should be quick to forgive, because seriously it's just driving.

Instead of calling the youth pastor to complain about an error - you should get him gift card, and then forgive him for greedily asking for it.


I dare you to monitor your reactions to people for one single day.  How do you react to mean people, to annoying people, to ignorant people?  Are you showing them the love, the grace, and the patience that you have been given?  Changing how you react to hard times can be a difficult process, but is necessary if we are to be the true reflection of Jesus.