trainers

We had a 'trainer' in today.

Nothing exactly physical or anything. She was in to train a few of us in how to work the copier that we've leased.

We've had it already for about a week, I guess. And we can make it work OK. But we might as well learn how to get the best from the thing. Which was why she was in.

Ari knew her stuff all right. She was good.

An enthusiast through and through. Patient, warm and putting things simply and clearly.

She wanted us all to be able to use and enjoy the equipment her firm had produced.

So there was a fair bit of explaining and a whole load of demonstrating. And the whole thing took quite a time.

I mean the morning was pretty much gone by the time she was done. And I was the last man standing, as it were. The others had all had to leave.

But that's training for you.

Ari's Roman Catholic, she explained. She was surprised to find so much goes on among us here through the week. She'd always had the notion that the Christian life is focussed on a Sunday. As in it pretty much begins and ends with that.

Like us with the machine - we thought we'd got it sussed and then found out there's so much more to learn.

That's how it is with many when it comes to the business of living. We think we've got it sussed. But there's actually so much to learn.

That makes me a 'trainer', too, I guess. Training people to get the most out of life.

Like the copier itself, our lives are not our own. They're not quite leased, but they're certainly given by God. And meant to be lived to the full.

Which is where I come in.

So today, for instance, I was doing some training myself. Spending time with a man who is 'learning the ropes' when it comes to being a minister within the life of the church.

He's a working man, so a Friday over lunch-time really suits us best.

And with Ari, the copier trainer, having done her bit this morning, what lies behind such training was still fresh in the front of my mind.

You've got to have studied yourself, of course, if you're going to be training others. There's no escaping that.

I've got to be a student, first of all. Permanently.

Sometimes when I get these forms you have to fill and it asks what it is that I do - I'm tempted to write the word 'student' there. Because that's what I am and what I have to be.

Much of the afternoon had me working away at that. The sheer hard graft of study. Getting to grips with the Scripture texts and getting my head round it all.

Because unless it's clear in my own little mind, I don;t stand a chance of making it clear to the people I'm called to teach.

Ari was good at that. Making it clear. Explaining things slowly and simply. Helping us understand. Giving us all a confidence to use the thing for ourselves.

That's what I aim both to be and to do. Giving understanding and communicating confidence.

So that people will gladly go out and then give it a try for themselves.

Living this life the way that God means we should live.

It's easier said than done. This 'training' that I'm called to do.

But it's more than worth the effort. Because what Ari's done is effectively set us free. We can do all our printing ourselves.

It feels quite liberating!

And that's what trainers do. They set folk free.