PATTERN OF PROGRESS
Few days ago, I sat before a group of youths that had so much zeal and energy. It was easy to see it in the way they had performed. Moments after they stood up and gave their rendition, the audience was agog with applause before they could hit their seats. Wow, it was refreshing. What beats an excellent performance? Only a better one!
These set of youths, however, had a problem. I wish I could say it was a little problem. They didn’t like a certain pattern of correction. Did I say they didn’t favour correction? No, I didn’t! It was just the pattern. They were ready to make amends but it had to be on their own terms. Big problem!
Learning is something I find joy doing, especially learning something that interests me. We all know how hard it is to learn something that doesn’t give you the vibes. But it’s not all the time that what gives vibes, gives progress. We know that the most effective medications are not usually sweet. The best education is not all served on gold platters neither is the best diamond found on the surface of the soil when planting grain.
There happens to be a measure of pressure that you would have to consciously assert, a degree of dirt that you would have to endure and more than an ounce of will power is required to get that which takes you to the next level.
These youths were boiling hot that day as I sat before them. The issue; a superior official had corrected them earlier and it was in the glare of the same audience that applauded their performance. I listened as they gave reasons upon reasons why they should never have been corrected harshly especially in public, why the pattern was alien to them and not negotiable in the light of their seeming progress. They spoke without restraint and as I listened, I boiled and boiled over!
I wasn’t the one who corrected them, I was just an extracted member of the applauding audience. The one who corrected them kept mute and as he listened, I think he was touched and since he didn’t want to lose his favourite and perhaps only set of zealous performers, he bowed to their own pattern of correction and apologized.
As I heard the apologies I knew that morals and character formation have taken a back seat to glamour and public praise. No, actually, they didn’t even make the back seat. They weren’t in the hall at all.
I grew up hating correction as many of us did and still do, but hating food as a child didn’t make our parents stop the feeding. Hating school didn’t stop our education. It’s not always what we want and feel like doing rather it’s what is needful and should be done.
It’s the norm today that the student tells the tutor how he wants to be taught and the child tells God how she wants to be blessed. Do we not see how wrong this is? Have we not witnessed that anyone that would want to progress in comfort normally fails comfortably, most times without effort even.
If we must move forward, we must learn to bear corrections even if they come in harsh packages. We must understand that a child who wants counsel cannot sacrifice the experience of an elder for his temporary whims. A student doesn’t decide the syllabus, the teacher does. A player doesn’t decide what role he plays, the coach has that sole responsibility. If this pattern is abused, it simply states that the student either doesn’t have trust in his tutor or his is primarily guided by a fools guide cane. Of course, he is blind already!
Silent seas do not make skillful sailors. Unless we put up with challenges, we can’t face life as we should. Correction is for progress and the pattern should not be negotiated in the direction of comfort or convenience for the one who seeks it.
Stay under the shouting, the intolerable situation, drink the bitter medicine because when you get healed, you won’t remember how bitter the medication was compared to the joy derived from good health.
As a youth, be calm and learn. Don’t be eager to point out how you should be corrected. Chastisement is for good. Correction is for progress. The pattern may not be perfect, only perfect people need perfect patterns and if you were perfect, you wouldn’t need correction now, will you?
My take is this; if you would desire an applause or honour in public, correction in public shouldn’t be farfetched. It balances how we should view life. Implementing corrections make us better and guess what follows…an even louder applause!
Heb 12:11 “No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening–it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.” (NLT)