In the story, "A Lesson before Dying," by Earnest J. Gaines, the lessons Grant learned throughout the story would affect his life continually. Ironically, he learns lessons by teaching lessons. He teaches a man a lesson before dying. This story takes place when segregation was occurring in the late 1940s in Bayonne, Louisiana. At the beginning of the story, Grant is very tenacious and pessimistic, but he will later learn a lot from this experience. The lessons Grant learns will affect not only him, but the people around him too. Understanding life beyond education was very important to Reverend Ambrose. The fact that Grant did not talk about God with Jefferson made him very distraught. "If we didn't talk about God, them what else on earth was important enough to talk about to someone who was about to meet God?" (Rev. Ambrose pg. 101). Reverend Ambrose senses the need for Jefferson to know about God because he is alarmed about his spiritual needs. Grant only is worried about his physical need like clothing and food. "Anything I ought to take him?" (Rev. Ambrose pg. 101) "Food, I suppose. Maybe some clean clothes. I can't think of anything else." (Grant pg. 101) "I was thinking more about the Bible." (Rev. Ambrose pg. 101). .
Reverend Ambrose is irritated that Grant does not have any faith in God. Grant just think that believing in God is just an escape mechanism for all the pain, but Reverend Ambrose is trying to prove him wrong. He tries to teach him the importance of God in everyone's life rather than mathematics and language arts. Reverend Ambrose also becomes peeved at Grant for not telling Jefferson to kneel before he goes to the chair. "No, I won't tell him to kneel. I'll tell him to listen to you –but I won't tell him to kneel. I will try to help him stand." (Grant pg. 216). Grant does this because kneeling has certainly not worked for him so he has no hope in it working for Jefferson.