As I
was preparing for my doctoral dissertation and had to read extensively in the
patristic literature of the church, I found that some of it was very
familiar. Since I do not believe like Socrates that his slave knows
mathematics because he has studied the subject in the previous life, I pondered
to find out where I had read this literature before. This pondering made
me return to the first library that I used in our village. This was not
the school library, but the library of a gentleman who became the pastor of our
church and in whose home I would spend many hours. He joined our little
Baptist Church, and my parents found out that he was a musician. He played the
violin and gave private lessons. I have never had an interest in the
violin, but I took accordion lessons. Both of us found out that I was
much more interested in reading than in music. Thus he invited me to come
as often as I wanted and use his library. He owned many volumes of the
patristic literature, and I found myself reading about the lives of the
Christian martyrs plus the main works of Augustine, Chrysostom, Cyril of
Alexandria, Tertullian and others. I read the patristic literature before
I was 15 and I did not return to it until I was in my mid-thirties, but I was
delightfully surprised that even though I read this material in another
language, I just needed to do some reviewing and it started to come back.
This gentleman, being a musician, believed in memorizing his music and so
he would play from memory. He applied this skill to his readings, and
encouraged me to memorize Christian poems. Very soon I was known in our
churches as the boy who could memorize long poems. I kept this habit of
memorizing poems, and when I came to the United States I would recite poems in
large gatherings of the Christian youth of our Baptist
Churches. Memorization forced me to practice excellence. A poem,
when it is recited, cannot be done haphazardly. It has to be mastered
completely. Even today when I meet some of my colleagues, we start
reciting poems jus to see how our minds are functioning. Paul tells his
disciple Timothy to show himself approved rightly dividing the word of
God. This gentleman instilled in me the need to be approved by God in
doing all things in an excellent fashion. There have been times in which
other church members would not appreciate his approach, but I have grown to
appreciate all the things that I have learned from his library and the drive
for excellence in his life.
I Have Read that Book Before! (Life in the Village, Part IV)
- Details
- Written by George Hancock-Stefan
- Category: Pastor's Corner