by David Melton
Everybody has them. Our own, personal favorites. I don’t know if I’ve ever met anybody that would go to an ice cream shop and just say, “Give me some ice cream.” Nope. We tell them what we like. During any sport season, rest assured, no fan will take you seriously if you “don’t care who wins.”
In the college world we try not to play favorites. Every student gets the same shot and they all get the best we can give them. That doesn’t mean the street runs the same way on the other side! Students around here tease about the courses I teach. Funny how “favorite” and “Melton’s course” don’t often end up in the same sentence. In fact, a few weeks back one student shrieked when she drew my name as her project advisor for a presentation! Surely that was a shriek of joy?
I may not be the favorite of too many, but I do have some favorites. This month seemed as good as any to talk about some of them. Just over my head, in my office, is an original charcoal — done by my son, Sam — of C.S. Lewis. It’s a beautiful piece by one of my favorite artists of one of my favorite personalities, Lewis. One of the first quotations I ever read by Lewis not only hooked me, but has become one of the mantras of my life. He wrote, “If all the world were Christian it might not matter if all the world were uneducated. But, as it is, a cultural life will exist outside the Church whether it exists inside or not. To be ignorant and simple now — not to be able to meet the enemies on their own ground — would be to throw down our weapons, and to betray our uneducated brethren who have, under God, no defense but us against the intellectual attacks of the heathen.” Not bad, huh? If we ever doubt why places like Boston Baptist College must exist, that should help remind us.
My favorite advice is from the Greek poet, Publius. “I have often regretted my speech but seldom my silence.” I do like that one!
Favorite preacher? We all have ours. I loved hearing my dad preach. I was blown away the one time I heard the eloquent John Stott. Haddon Robinson made me feel like there were only two of us in the room and he knew all about me. Favorite chapel sermon in recent memory? Lyndel Lee — “Satan has desired to sift you.” Really good stuff.
I am blessed to get to lead Boston Baptist College. Teaching is my favorite part of the job, but I get to work and interact with some of my favorite people in the world … on our campus, on our trustee board, and all around the world through the partnerships we share — partnerships like we have with some of you. In the middle of an unusually long and snowy New England winter (not my favorite season), it’s a good thing to hold on to.