Teacher.

"When the Student is ready, the Teacher will appear."  This quote is attributed to many people, including Tao Te Ching and the Buddha himself.  It's probably safe to say that is comes from the East.  Like all great Proverbs, it seems vague until you really explore yourself and find that it is very specific and very personal.

The quote has to do with the readiness of the Student.  It can be a commentary on those who fail to see their need for a Teacher, those who toil and fail to ask for help or those who just can't see beyond their own immediate struggles.  It is also a comfort to those who are in search of understanding that when you have gained a certain posture and perspective, that there will be someone to help you along the next path.  But in either case, what remains true is that you can't see it until you can see it.  

What is unspoken in the quote is how the Teacher appears.  The reality is that someone is always passing through your life, waiting to teach you.  The Teacher doesn't just appear, some variation of a Teacher is always present.  I think of the joke of the Preacher waiting to be rescued from a flood.  As the flood waters start to rise, folks from the congregation come to get him from the church, "No, No need...the Lord will save me!"  The waters get higher and into the church and a boat comes to get the preacher.  He replies, "No! No need...the Lord will save me!"  As the flood gets higher, desperately high, the preacher is clinging to the steeple of the church.  A helicopter comes and attempts to rescue him.  He screams, "THE LORD WILL SAVE ME!"  The preacher drowns of course and in heaven he questions God, "Lord I was faithful, why didn't you save me?"  God replies, "What do you want?  I sent a truck, a boat AND a helicopter!"  

Certainly, I am more blessed than most.  I have had loads of help and teachers in my life.  I can look back at times and see certain faces and certain interactions where someone was there ready to help me, waiting to see if I was going to wake up from my self-absorption and accept teaching.  Most of the time I did not.  This student was seldom ready.  However, at the moments when I did surrender out of desperation or curiosity, the Teacher did appear.  For most of us, if we are able to lift our heads up, someone is there to teach us something.  The Teacher doesn't just appear, the Teacher is ever present in one form or another.  As we experienced a lovely Easter service with my brother yesterday,  I was reminded that this is how it is with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  If we are raised in the church, we will have heard that, "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son and whosoever believes in him will have everlasting life..." hundreds of times before we hit double digits.  John 3:16 is the simplest expression of the Gospel and it's the first thing we memorize.  It is ever present, given in a 1000 different ways, but until we are ready, it won't take hold of us.  Beyond the explicit Gospel, the story of God's love for us and the salvation available to us is present in nature and in beauty and in the telling of each others stories.  There is enough to make us curious.  There is enough to make us ask...to seek a teacher.  

Romans 1 says "20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse."

This particular Easter, I was not in my home church, but the simple expression of the Good News of Jesus rang in my heart and filled me with joy, just like it did the first time I really heard it.  Not as a young boy in Sunday School, but as a 33 year old father and husband.  Although I had been presented the Gospel in so many times and so many ways, I could not and would not receive it.  But when I was ready, it was there.  The truth crushed me and raised me up all at the same time.  More than a teacher appeared, the Master and my Savior revealed himself.  It took time and study and it took mentors and the work is not finished.  But I am ready and that is all that is needed.