Dr. John I Durham

Last week I was doing my morning devotion, in which I was reading from the Book of Psalms. It made me think of Dr. John Durham, my Old Testament professor from Southeastern Seminary. Dr. Durham was one of the most brilliant men I’ve ever met. He wrote the commentary on Psalms in the Broadman Bible Commentary in the 1970s. His enthusiasm for the Old Testament, and Psalms in particular, was infectious.

As I read Psalm 86, I wondered to myself what Dr. Durham would say about it. I would have consulted my copy of his commentary were it not packed away in the boxes in my basement.

As I finished my devotion, I googled Dr. Durham’s name to see what he’s been up to. As it turns out, he passed away in 2022.

This is becoming a common occurrence. I’ll look up a favorite actor, or author, or athlete and discover they are no longer with us. In just this past year we lost Frank Howard, the slugger for the Washington Senators; astronaut Frank Borman; Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor; Actor Michael Gambon; and singer Tony Benett.

All of these celebrities had something in common with my seminary professor. They were all really good at what they did, and they loved doing it. Dr. Durham’s classes were like being in a worship service. He made the Bible come alive and he taught his students to love it like he did.

I’ve had a lot of teachers in my life. Many of them were excellent. My fourth-grade teacher, my 7th grade English teacher, my 12th grade social studies teacher, and my college history professor were wonderful. But there were others that I don’t have warm and fuzzy feelings about. For some of them, the teaching gig was just a job, a way to pay the bills. They didn’t want to be there as much as their students didn’t want to be there. Some were struggling. They had health issues or family issues. And some of them, quite frankly, were just mean spirited people. But the great ones were passionate about what they did. They loved the subject and that enthusiasm overflowed into the lives of their students.

Thank you, John Durham, for passing your love of scriptures on to me. May I pass that love on to the good people at Virginia Hills.