It’s hard to admit, but I make assumptions about my students… about what they know or don’t know, about the reasons for their behavior, and selfishly, about their potential for contributing to the overall “wellness” and unity of the class. I know that assumptive teaching is wrong for many reasons, but I’m in a hurry. The semester is short, the course is intense, and the pressure is on to foster a safe, inclusive, and vulnerable community from the outset.
That said, it was January, and I had a new student who seemed angry and bitter, who boasted about his political ideologies while dismissing the feelings and ideas of others. I was preparing myself for what I assumed would be a difficult four months because of him, but God was about to break open my assumptions.
After class one day, he was waiting outside to speak with me. I worried about a potential confrontation and whether my words would be gracious and seasoned with salt. Nervously, I led him into a vacant room, where he began to cry, and I – stunned – prayed silently.
I learned that his mother had been my student and that as she was dying, she urged him to “find me.”
As he unfolded a story of loss, family conflict, and fear of the future, I was dumbfounded that someone I had taught years before had entrusted her son to me. What could I offer this young man who was looking to me for hope?
As he described his pain and confusion, God immediately began putting pieces into place. I thought of three Christian students from the previous semester who could take him to church, introduce him to Bible study, and patiently walk alongside him. He calmed down, listened to my faltering and inadequate words, and opened his heart to the assurance of Christ’s love for him.
Here are a few things I took away from that moment:
God pursues whom He desires, not whom we think is the most likely to respond to Him.
It’s important to share our lives and stories. Something of me was revealed to my student’s mother that caused her to point him in my direction.
It helps to have a “team”; other Christians who can come on board, as in the case of my former students.
Assumptions are dangerous; I don’t know what’s going on beneath the surface of anyone’s life.
As the term closed, and I saw the changes that God was making in this young man’s life, I couldn’t help but think of the chain of events that God had set up – a dying mother’s last request, a hurting student’s desperate plea for help, and his finding not just me but Jesus, the lover of his soul.
Karen Daggett
Boston College