As a teacher, I understand the importance of providing feedback to my students. I know that if I don’t take the time to respond to my students’ mistakes or redirect their thinking to a deeper level, my student’s learning either stagnates or even possibly regresses. I therefore find myself spending hours laboring over papers, quizzes, and tests, hoping to point out in meaningful ways just exactly where additional work might be needed—hoping to help the students move towards progress.
Despite these efforts, though, not all students respond in kind with my time and effort. While some students certainly mull over the feedback, ask questions, and seek improvement, there are also those who can’t see past the final grade. They simply crumple their papers in disappointment and quickly move their thoughts towards other subjects. And I will ponder: Why don’t they care? If they want to succeed, why don’t they consider what it takes to improve? Why won’t they put in the necessary work?
Of course, it is easy to apply the logic when one is, in fact, the teacher; where it is more difficult to apply is when one is among the students.
The truth is that we Christians are all students of Jesus Christ, and we all receive spiritual feedback intended to help us improve. Unfortunately, we don’t always respond to that feedback the way we should. Sure, we may receive with joy the feedback that affirms, that builds our confidence in Christ, that breeds our joy, or that indicates we are flourishing in certain areas or with certain people. But how do we react to the feedback that suggests we still have room to improve? How do we respond to the pain, the loneliness, the discomfort, or the sadness that indicates our priorities are out of sorts, our relationships are out of balance, or our prayer life forgotten? Typically, we hold our heads in shame, crumple the feedback in our hearts and hope that no one will ever notice.
The problem is that ignoring the feedback God gives never offers a long-term solution and promises nothing but spiritual mediocrity. If we don’t address those parts of our lives where improvement is necessary–if we get hung up on the grade rather than the feedback–we can never move beyond what we’ve always known and we can never truly experience the fullest of God’s blessing.
Yes, the better solution for today is to listen to God’s suggestions and see where they can take us.
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