Here's what I think:
God pioneered the probation period
Don't believe me? See Exodus 19:1 and note that God performed at least two months of miracles for Israel before signing them on to a covenant at Mount Sinai. That be you testing your boss out for two whole months before even sign the employment contract. On top of that, he gave Israel a year of faith training at Sinai before the journey toward Canaan for battle (Numbers 1:1). So I guess it's fair that the earlier generation of Israelites got fired from the job when they shrunk away from taking the land.
How Jesus' disciples could be so clueless after following him around for 3 years
I think I understand.
I once travelled to London alone to visit some friends. I navigated my way around so well that my friend was impressed when I arrived in the city an hour earlier than expected.
But then my friend become the navigator the whole time after that. And because I trusted my friend to navigate, I paid no attention to where we were going and how to get anywhere. Why learn the route when you could just follow? When it came time for us to part ways, my friend quizzed me on how to get home. Even though we have taken that route twice before, I failed the quizzed spectecularly.
Maybe the same thing happened to the disciples. They found a leader worth leaving their jobs for, and they got used to following him up and down the country. Why bother thinking so much when the Master is constantly available? If they didn't understand, they asked. When they were hungry, they were fed. They slept where he slept, and do as they were told. Then all of the sudden, their Master was no longer on hand to decipher for them the most shocking event in human history. No wonder they were lost.
Moral of the Stories
It pays to pay attention. I could have the best Boss who is also the Teacher, King, Father, Friend, Saviour, God, and still not learn a thing because I was simply not paying attention.
Fall 2020 was a particularly tough semester for me. It became harder and harder to pay full attention in class and the learning contexts become merged in a blur when everything is on the same screen and in the same room. I can't remember which classmates I have in which classes other than the few friends I discuss my homework with.
I took the three-course package typically recommended for first year students (on top of my internship) and understood why it is considered a Regent rite-of-passage to survive that combination of induction course. The weekly assignments and Old Testament exams are notorious for inducing nightmares.
But with the great challenges comes great mercies from above. We learned coping mechanisms around the online format to still benefit from community-learning. We call our classmates to pray for each after a traumatic exam. And I take advantage of my mini-Regent community which consists of my five beautiful housemates. At the end of the term, I lamented how often I got distracted by my phone or something else during online classes, but am also amazed by how much I did learn in spite of the Zoom-inflicted handicap. God is good. All. The. Time.
PS: My classes in the Fall of 2020 were Introduction to Old Testament (the exams for this has a frightening negative-marking scheme, probably designed to make students bond over the misery), Christian Thought and Culture 1 (where we debated over church tradition vs scriptural authority, discussed medieval architecture and poetry, wrestle with Plato and Aristotle, and considered Constantine's model of Christendom), History 1 (from early church to the Reformation), and Supervised Ministry 1A (includes the first quarter of my 2-year internship at Granville Chapel and supplementary lectures on models of prayer).
Image: Attending online classes from the dining room. Fall 2020.