Surprise Guest in Class Today

This week I'm taking a week-long course at Southern. Basically, it's an 8-5 class for a week. You do almost the same amount of reading and assignments as you would in a semester-long course. Right now, I'm taking a really practical course called Discipling Adults. Dr. Hal Pettegrew is the prof. Obviously it is a challenge to keep students engaged for eight hours a day, and Dr. Pettegrew is doing a great job of it. He has wisely brought in guest speakers in the afternoons to talk about different topics pertaining to discipleship.

Today we had a break just before the guest speaker came. I was sitting in the classroom with a few other students as the guest speaker walked in. He wasn't anyone famous (to my knowledge, at least) and yet he treated all of us as if we were the famous ones. This man, who had to be in his seventies, came to meet each of us before the class started, walking around to greet each of us. After meeting each of us and learning our names, he responded with "Glad to know ya."

As I sat at my computer, waiting for the break to be over, this man looks over my shoulder and says "Gig 'em." I was caught off guard. I wasn't expecting something like that. I looked down and he was pointing at my ring. Then, he pointed at his hand which had a smooth gold ring on his finger. He grinned at me and said, "class of 1956." His ring didn't look quite like mine. The year and shield had worn off, and you could hardly tell it was an Aggie Ring. I shot a "Gig 'em" right back at him, and I listened to him speak for about an hour and a half. I learned much about pastoring and discipleship, and I really appreciated his humility, as I learned from his actions as much as his words.