GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 8:14
Incidental Teaching Experiences
Our family was on the way from Springfield, Missouri, to Los Angeles, California, a few decades ago, pulling a camper behind the car. After driving about an hour, we started going through the list of things to make sure we had everything we needed for the trip: food, clothes, a map (before the days of GPS), money… money? We had forgotten the money! So, I pulled the car onto a side road, unhooked the camper, and Alice and two of the boys stayed with it while one of the boys and I drove an hour back home to get the money.
We recalled that incident recently when I left the house without my wallet. Fortunately, Alice remembered to ask about the wallet before we left the driveway—no two-hour trip this time! When I got back to the car, we compared that brief interlude to the camper incident. Alice mentioned her mother’s superstition about going back to get something she had forgotten. I don’t consider myself superstitious about returning for something I forgot, but I prefer not to do it. Instead, I often shrug and go on, making any necessary adaptations—though not this time, when I was without a driver’s license or money.
St. Mark described a similar incident in the life of the disciples. They left the region of Dalmanutha on the southwest side of the Sea of Galilee, sailing for the northwest coast, a voyage of about fifteen miles, which would take about six hours in normal conditions. “And they forgot to take loaves, and they had nothing with them in the boat except one loaf.” (Mark 8:14) One small, round, flat loaf of unleavened bread would not have provided much nourishment for thirteen hungry men. Nevertheless, there’s no indication that they returned to the coast for more supplies; instead, they adapted and continued on, giving Jesus an opportunity to use the circumstances as a teaching occasion—sometimes called “incidental teaching experiences.”
My high school shop teacher told us that if we broke a tool, we should bring it to him immediately so that we could see what happened and learn what not to do—an example of an incidental teaching experience. It’s a good practice to look at an experience that focuses attention—whether forgetting money or a wallet, breaking a tool, or forgetting to take bread—and ask what one can learn from it—it may be a divine, incidental teaching experience.
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