Mid-sentence, the nurse pauses. “Oh wait. You have to get a new doctor.”
Steve Halla, associate professor of art at Union University, begins to argue.
“What are you talking about? This guy is awesome!”
She cuts him off again. “No sir you need to get a new doctor. You don’t understand, he died yesterday.”
Halla first came to teach at Union in 2009. Before this position, he taught for three years at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. That is when his illnesses began. Though the doctors thought his cycle of head colds and pneumonia would improve when he moved to Tenn., not two months passed by before he was sick with pneumonia again.
At the hospital, Halla met his doctor for the first time. The young Union graduate, only in his twenties at the time, was from the area, had a girlfriend and planned to one day open his own family practice. He sat before Halla, examined his medical history and knew the solution. The two continued to meet once a month as Halla progressed in his treatment.
Contrary to most people, Halla viewed every opportunity to meet with his doctor as an incredible blessing. He used that time to learn all he could about this man’s seemingly wonderful life, without trying to pry too much, of course.
Halla met with his doctor only a few short days before the accident. Driving home from work one day in the rain, the man’s car hydroplaned. He died instantly as he crashed into an oncoming semi-truck. As Halla left the doctor’s office bearing the nurse’s painful news, he got into his own car. Then the thought hit him: did it ever occur to him once that he had only about two days left to live? If he had known, what would he have done differently?
“It made me think that I should really take advantage of today because I might not have tomorrow,” said Halla. “I’m here. I wasn’t guaranteed today, but I’m here.”
The more years Halla gains, the more he realizes the serious limitations on his time. He wanted to figure out how to make the most of his time each day. So, back when he attended the Dallas Theological Seminary, he started watching documentaries. Then he made it a habit so that every day as he ate lunch, he could spend half an hour watching a documentary and learning about something new.
In order to further his knowledge within his own area of study, Halla attends different conferences every year. Involvement in these professional societies gives him the chance to find out what others in the field are interested in and doing.
While documentaries and conferences both serve great purposes in expanding Halla’s knowledge, reading is his greatest tool to both increase his understanding and grow his perspective of the world.
During the semester he reads mainly on subjects pertaining to what he is teaching at the time. For instance, in his Arts in Western Civilization class, if he is finishing up a section on the Greeks, he will prepare for the next section of early Christian art by digging deeper into new research from the last year in that area.
During the summer, however, Halla takes full advantage of his available time. He has three categories for his summer reading. First, he reads works specifically tied to his discipline: art history books, art theory books and recent journals. Overwhelmed by the volume of content in the Arts in Western Civilization course, Halla began in 2006, his first time teaching the class, by creating a list of every artist or movement mentioned that he had never heard of before. Then, while on every summer or mid-semester break, he chooses one of these topics and explores it deeper.
Second, during his summers, Halla reads to further his personal spiritual growth and development. His summer mornings feature breakfast, and then straight on to whatever his theological reading is for the day. In these readings, he aims to learn how other people have lived the Christian life, especially people of other cultures.
The last category of Halla’s summer reading is literature and topics with which he does not agree. He focuses on scholars in other religions and faith traditions such as the core beliefs of the faith of Islam from an Islamic scholar’s perspective or learning about aspects of the LGBTQ community, so he can try to see the world as they see it. Halla wants to know how the other person understands the concept, even if that brings quizzical looks from students visiting and looking at the bookcases in his office.
“When it comes to reading, I don’t agree with everything I read, but I think as someone who wants to continue to develop and to figure out how you can continue to reach others for Christ, you can engage people across different cultures and disciplines,” said Halla. “For me, that’s been the most helpful. Sometimes, the books make me sad. Sometimes I sit back, and I think, ‘Wow! I would never have thought of that before.’”
When he was a student, one of the questions Halla always wondered about his professors was how they came to be themselves. In discussions with them in their office or a coffee shop, they would always share about a book they had been reading recently. This sparked yet another reason for why Halla reads and learns as passionately as he does. But he also wanted to share with his own students, knowledge like that which he gained from his past professors. This is why he begins class with devotionals and life lessons. Five minutes for the chance to help his students figure out how to live life just a little better.
“Even though I never followed the ministry route specifically, I think I’ve always had kind of a shepherding heart. I like to encourage people and just try to motivate them,” said Halla. “I think something as simple as a prayer to begin class and just a little tidbit on how to live life. Everything you learn gives you a larger perspective on life and hopefully greater insights on making life decisions.”
Beyond small moments of life advice, Halla also desires for his students to gain a greater appreciation for art from his classes. He believes that to truly appreciate art you must actually make art. His creative project in Arts in Western Civilization allows students to produce something of their own imagination that may live outside the class.
Abby Bone, a freshman nursing major, is taking Halla’s Arts in Western Civilization class this semester.
“I think his openness with his creative projects helps all of us to do something we’re excited about and overall just sheds a positive light on art itself for each person because we can make it personal, individual,” she said. “It helps keep that excitement for art in me going, so I can do artsy things now and still do it later.”
Learning is not a pastime. It is not a career. No, for Halla, learning is a calling. He cited Albrecht Dürer who said, “We shall all gladly learn, for the more we know so much more do we resemble the likeness of God who verily knoweth all things.”
As explained by Halla, this quote means that if we are to be imitators of God in all things, in all areas of our life, then we must learn. For if God is all-knowing, then it is a part of his character that he has given us the capacity to learn. Therefore, we should want to learn as much as we possibly can. Neither for knowledge’s sake or a means to brag, but the idea that learning is just another way you can continue to conform yourself to the image of God.
“When he gave his life story, it helped to see how much he dedicated to art, and how much of his life he had pursued learning about art. That definitely helped people get excited about it because he had invested so much into it,” said Bone. “To him, learning is glorifying to God, and helping other people to learn is also glorifying to God.”
Halla believes a desire to learn is a part of how we worship. It provides more questions to ask, and little by little, it increases our worldview. Maybe this is why Halla was so impacted by the death of his young Union graduate doctor. That death gave him a motivation to use his time wisely, which provoked him to search out new ways to learn, which caused him to ask more questions, which increased his worldview, which increased his worship of his Creator.
He began to notice shortly after the accident that his prayers began to change. He would start off talking about the weather to place him in the present moment. Then, he would thank God for allowing him one more day, a gift. It was not guaranteed, but it was an opportunity to live in the present moment.
“Thank you, Lord, for this chilly day or rainy day or cloudy day. Thank you for this gift of today. Thank you for yet another chance to be here.”
The prayer is an audible reminder to Halla to never miss the present moment. He realized that no one is ever guaranteed tomorrow, so we must take advantage of every opportunity that comes our way with all the time we are given. Take advantage of every blessing of each day.
“You’ll never get this time back. You get one shot at this. Make the absolute most of all the professors you have access to, all the friends that are now just down the hall, they’re right there. There is all this stuff, and just wear it out,” said Halla. “Wear it out, so you can leave and look back and not have any regrets. You can say, ‘This was a great time in my life. I learned a lot, used my time well and now I’m ready to move on.'”
Photo courtesy of Union Photo Project
