Discipleship and Learning
Discipleship and Learning
Last week we spoke about discipleship and learning, and we mentioned its types: discipleship and learning through guidance and counsel, discipleship and learning through life, and through books. It remains for me today to speak to you about another type of discipleship, which is discipleship and learning from nature, and discipleship and learning from events.
In truth, nature can give a person many lessons. The Holy Scripture says: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork” (Ps 19:1).
A person can listen to the messages of the heavens and the firmament and take a lesson. At the very least, nature proceeds in an amazing order that never fails, and we can take from it a lesson in order. Imagine, for example, the earth in its rotation, and likewise the moon. They rotate with a precise order that never falters for a moment, to the extent that people, because of this order, can predict what will happen in nature: light and darkness, cold and heat, winter and summer. This gives us a lesson in order.
Likewise, nature in its work carries out the will of another with amazing surrender and amazing obedience—the obedience of God, whom we address in our prayers saying: “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:10).
Nature carries out the will and purpose of God in its work. The heavens, planets, stars, suns, and the countless multitude of celestial bodies—all these and others carry out the will of God. While man is the only being, after Satan, who cares about his own will and opposes the will of God.
We can also take from the order of nature a lesson in “movement and stillness.” The earth, for example, has been rotating around its axis for thousands of years and has not stopped rotating, and likewise the moon and the stars—each has an orbit in which it moves. It is something amazing: the earth rotates around itself and at the same time rotates around the sun in a precise system and in a movement that neither fails nor stops.
Would that man might take a lesson from nature in movement, activity, and not stopping work.
And someone may say that mountains are fixed and do not move, but mountains and others also give us a lesson in steadfastness, stability, and silence.
Thus we can take from nature lessons without end.
Also, notice that nature, while it works, works for the sake of others and not for itself. This is something rarely found in man, and it is a lesson. The moon gives light to others while it itself is dark. Rain falls so that crops may be watered and man may benefit. The stars give us light. Thus all nature works for the benefit of others.
We can take amazing spiritual lessons from nature, among them “teamwork,” as a whole team working together in harmony for one purpose. Heat, pressure, and rain: the earth is warmed by heat, the surrounding air becomes warm, dries, lightens, and rises; winds come, become saturated with vapor, rain occurs, and crops are watered. Thus there is an amazing teamwork in which each performs his role.
Nature does the same within the human body. For example, when a person eats food, every organ in the body moves to perform its role in the process of digestion until the food is transformed into blood and tissue in the human body.
We see “teamwork” around us in nature, while man himself often does not know how to work collectively.
Another virtue of nature is that it works without regard to others’ opinions about what it does, something not found in man. Rain, for example, is concerned with performing its appointed duty, without caring about people’s opinions of it, whether they are pleased with it or not. Likewise, the sun performs its duty, rising and setting at its appointed times without caring about people’s opinions, whether they are annoyed by it in the heat of summer or comforted by it in the cold of winter.
We can also take from nature a lesson in “wisdom.” Once I stood looking at a tree and found how wise it is. I reflected on how this tree, like every tree, sheds its leaves in winter and grows leaves in summer. I realized that it sheds its leaves in winter to facilitate the sun’s reach to people, and grows leaves in summer to provide shade for people beneath it.
God has done wonders in this nature, and the more we contemplate it, the more we find lessons we do not notice: lessons in order, wisdom, obedience, steadfastness, teamwork, and so on, alongside other partial lessons.
For example, from the root of a tree we take the greatest lesson in self-denial and concealing virtues. The root carries the entire tree—the trunk, the stem, the branches, the leaves, and the fruits—and also provides nourishment. Yet with all this, it remains hidden under the ground, performing its work with perfection and in amazing concealment away from sight.
People love to be “fruit,” or a trunk, or branches, but no one likes to be a “root,” because everyone wants to appear.
Many other things we can take from nature as lessons, and all of them require contemplation.
I remember that the first time I was entrusted with teaching at the Theological Seminary, the first lesson I taught was about the spiritual lessons we take from the Nile River. I drew a map of the river and said that its origin was merely drops of rain that fell from the sky and formed this mighty river. This means that every great mighty work begins with a point, and every great journey begins with a step.
I said that the collection of drops that fell on the mountains of Ethiopia carved for themselves a path. I asked: how can this weak, insignificant drop of water carve a path for itself in rock? This gives the meaning of perseverance and continuous steadfastness without stopping. It also means not to fear difficulties, for even a drop of water can carve a path in rocks.
The journey of the Nile from the depths of Africa took thousands of years, throughout which it continued carving its path until it reached the Mediterranean Sea.
Take, my brother, a lesson for yourself from the Nile: go deeper and deeper, day after day and year after year, until you carve a path for yourself and dig a channel for yourself. Be patient and deepen the channel until you settle.
Another lesson from the Nile is that its reddish waters, laden with mud, you refuse to drink, but the earth welcomes them because they are suitable and rich, full of goodness. Thus you cannot despise this water even if it is laden with mud and not suitable for you.
You can learn from anything and find a lesson in everything. The important thing is you—do you love and want to learn and benefit? If so, you will find benefit in anything. If not, benefit will pass before you and you will not perceive it.
There are many things from which you can benefit even if their benefit is not apparent. One of the wise said: “I learned silence from the parrot.” They asked him how. He said: because the more the parrot speaks without benefit, the more I feel that silence is better.
Thus you can learn silence from the silent and from the talkative as well, and you can take a lesson from a thing and from its opposite too.
The person who can be discipled and learn can even learn from animals and insects. Therefore the Lord Christ said: “Be wise as serpents and harmless as doves” (Matt 10:16). The Holy Scripture also says: “Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise… which prepares her supplies in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest” (Prov 6:6, 8).
The ant is always in motion and activity, never lazy or negligent. Likewise the bee: a person can learn from it activity and amazing order. The bee’s organization of its kingdom is astonishing beyond reason. I remember workers in the world who do not reach the level of bees. To the extent that Shawqi, the Prince of Poets, composed a great poem about bees, beginning with:
“A well-governed kingdom
Bearing in the workers
I marvel at workers ruled
by a commanding female
And the craftsmen burdened with authority
Over them, an empress!”
We can learn from birds. The Lord Christ said: “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matt 6:26).
Once, in the monastery garden, I saw sparrows with much grain before them. One came, took a single grain, and flew away, although there was much before it. It does not know “storage,” for that is the way of man who loves abundance, barns, and treasures. The sparrow is not like that. Sparrows trust that they will find provision wherever they go.
People admire birds when they sing. Have you seen a person who sings throughout his life like birds? They sing and chirp although they are always exposed to traps, hunting, and pursuit, and although they do not own a house, a home, or even a nest. Yet they sing, unconcerned and without anxiety. Which of us has reached the faith of the sparrow?
We humans, who have discovered the atom, inventions, and reached the moon and space—have we reached the faith and contentment of the sparrow, or its joy and constant gladness?
Yet we boast and say that we are the head of creation and that man is the most perfect and best creature. Where are we compared to the sparrow that considers everything to belong to God?
We can take a lesson from sparrows and from everything. Whoever wants to learn will find a lesson in everything. The Lord Christ says: “Consider the lilies of the field… even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Matt 6:28–29).
Everything around us is amazing, but we are the ones who do not want to learn.
When God created Adam and placed him in Paradise, He placed him in a place full of lessons. But Adam did not benefit and said: I am the head of creation and have dominion over everything, and he began to dominate instead of learning.
If we wanted to learn, we could learn from everything. For example, when you come to church, you can learn from the candle how it melts in order to give light to others, and learn from it how you can be light like it. You can also take lessons from pictures and icons. From incense you can learn how it burns to give a fragrant aroma—an example of amazing self-giving. You also learn from incense, which rises upward, how to ascend, grow, and always direct yourself upward toward heaven. Then you know that the lives of the virtuous were a fragrance of incense, and that incense did not become incense except through fire. So if “fire” comes to you, do not be troubled or distressed that you burn, but say: let me be a fragrance of incense and a sweet aroma.
Likewise, in church you can take lessons from its rites and benefit from every rite.
Wherever you walk on the road or sit at home, take lessons.
The person who wants to be discipled and learn can do so from the river as well as from the clouds. When you look at the lofty clouds, remember that they were once drops of water that evaporated upward. Yet they do not become proud, for they will condense and descend again as drops. And when they descend, they do not suffer from a sense of inferiority.
You can take a lesson from everything—believe me, even from garbage and filth. A person can take a lesson from garbage, for it can become compost, which turns into part of a plant you eat and becomes part of the tissue in your body.
Therefore, look, and do not despise or belittle anything.
Just as a person takes lessons from nature, insects, birds, and everything, he can also take lessons from events that happen to him or to others. Benefit from the events that pass through your life, from the stories of history, from people’s lives, and from everything that happens.
Our fault is that our memory is weak, and we forget much. If we contemplated the hand of God in events, we would see wonders.
The wonders of God in each of our lives and the spiritual lessons we take from all this should not pass us by.
We can also take a lesson from every person we meet. Would that you could say to yourself whenever you meet anyone: I can take a lesson from this person, or from that event.
The world, nature, and life are full of lessons. But who is the person who wants to be discipled and to learn?
Believe me, if a person wants to be discipled and to learn, he will never be able to count the number of his teachers—from nature, people, animals, birds, insects, and everything.
I invite you to be discipled and to learn from everything.
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