Time for Reflection

– in the Scottish Parliament at 2:00 pm on 3 November 2010.

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Photo of Alex Fergusson Alex Fergusson None 2:00, 3 November 2010

Good afternoon. Our first item of business is time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader today is the Rev Ian Benzie of St Andrew's church in Irvine.

Rev Ian Benzie (St Andrew's Church, Irvine):

He was the student of the century and outstanding in all areas—practical and theory. Even the lecturers in the college of carpentry bowed to his expertise, and he knew it. He revelled in criticising students and staff alike.

As the end of his four-year course approached, it was time for the final exhibition. All the students worked hard at their designs, chose their materials with care, and the work began in earnest.

The star pupil got down to work, too. He looked down his nose at his fellow students' work and he was not slow to tell them what he thought. But his was a masterpiece of craftsmanship and design—the largest item ever made in the workshop. Alongside the chairs and tables, the cabinets and bowls, his modern-style welsh dresser stood supreme. The final finish was like a mirror to the eye and velvet to the touch. It was priceless.

He was assured of the gold medal and he told everybody in sight. It would be the best in the history of the college. During the build, some of the lecturers offered to talk through the work, but he dismissed them with a shrug. Some of the less-intimidated students had also approached him and asked, "Do you mind if I say something?". "Of course I mind. You cannot improve on perfection!" The time came to move from the workshop to the exhibition hall. Everything was carefully carried out—except the welsh dresser. It would not fit through the doorway; it had to be broken up and scrapped! The public exhibition was also the final examination, and the culmination of four years of hard work. The know-it-all student failed. He did not even get an ordinary degree.

There is a possible modern-day mirroring of that parable in Jesus's tale about taking a speck of dust out of your colleague's eye but not attending to the plank in your own. So many fellow students and lecturers had tried to offer advice to the so-called expert, but his pride in his ability to go it alone set him so far apart. He tolerated no opinion but his own. His four-year degree course culminated in public humiliation.

Jesus's tale came from experience. He made, and still makes, people think today. "Am I like that fool who wouldn't listen?" "Do I prefer to confront and to criticise rather than to share and to welcome offers of help from others?" I know that I can be like that; that is my personal confession. But could it be yours too? In private or in public life?