Editor’s Note: Carl Hammond is retiring after 24 years as an associate professor of accounting at Point Loma Nazarene University. Born and raised in Denver, Colo., the U.S. Navy brought him to San Diego in 1969 during the Vietnam War. He came to PLNU in 2002. He has a passion for soccer and loves playing chess.
Twenty-four years ago, I embarked on an unexpected journey as an accounting professor at Point Loma Nazarene University.
I wasn’t interested in teaching. It wasn’t part of the plan. I had neither teaching experience nor a doctorate.
Despite this, PLNU offered me a temporary position as an adjunct professor. It was a bridge to carry me to my next accounting job while I recovered from major surgery after a 30-year professional accounting career as a certified public accountant and senior financial executive.
However, once I got in front of the classroom, it was like “Oh my, this is what I am supposed to be doing with my life.” I had never felt that way before.
When the adjunct position turned into a full-time position, I began to wonder why this teaching thing resonated so deeply with me — since in my experience, most successful accountants were lousy teachers. I never found a good answer. Then, a few years later, a student passed along a newsletter from a missionary he was supporting.
The missionary was frustrated because, although she had a wonderful sense of humor, she didn’t speak the indigenous language. She had a translator, but most successful humor is in the timing, so she had to wait to see how the people reacted. And even if they laughed, she didn’t know if they were laughing with her or at her.
Then she said something like this: “Isn’t that what it must be like for God? He speaks to each of us and then waits to see how we interpret it.”
Wow, I had never thought of it that way before.
I know that God speaks to everyone all the time. At a faith-based school like PLNU, almost everyone listens to some extent, so I just watch to see how the people at PLNU interpret what they are hearing.
And what they do is wonderful!
I’ve learned a lot. Here are some of the things I learned while teaching here:
Embrace diversity
My faith has become stronger and more vibrant since I came to PLNU, because I have learned that not everyone has the same understanding of how God is working in the world.
I see God working in the world — I’m just not sure how. However, I am pretty sure he has worked differently with different people for more than 2,000 years.
Otherwise, we’d all be Methodist like me.
Embrace prayer
I have seen prayer work, and I have felt prayer work.
I don’t know how prayer works.
I don’t know why prayer works.
I don’t even know when prayer will work.
I just know it works.
Embrace the liberal arts
The world is complicated and full of complex problems.
Effective solutions won’t be found in my accounting textbook, but only from a holistic understanding of the world across different disciplines.
The purpose of a college education
The most important purpose of a college education is to learn how to think — not necessarily to just get a job.
The world changes. Jobs change. If you don’t know how to think, you won’t know how to meet the challenges of a changing world.
The danger is that if you don’t learn how to think, other people will do your thinking for you.
It’s your life. Not your pastor’s life. Not your mother’s life. Not your friend’s life.
Challenge thoughtfully the constant conundrums presented by life and decide what you think is true, right and just.
Participate joyfully in the freedom afforded to you here in the United States to live your life as you want — through your understanding of how God is working in the world.
Help from Mother Teresa
The following quote is from “Anyway poem” by Mother Teresa, which has helped many of my students and me through troubling and confusing times:
“People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered / Forgive them anyway / If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfishness and ulterior motives / Be kind anyway /If you are successful, you will win some false friends and true enemies / Succeed anyway… / What you spend years building someone could destroy overnight / Build anyway / If you find serenity and happiness there may be jealousy / Be happy anyway / The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow / Do good anyway / Give the world the best you have, and it may not be enough / Give the world the best you’ve got anyway / You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God / It was never between you and them anyway.”
Purpose of life
The purpose of life is to participate.
And perfect participation is love.
