You Answered the Wrong Question

WHILE IN seminary preparing for ministry, I was enrolled in a class that one day brought me great discouragement. Our class was asked to do a paper. Now I always loved to do challenging things in class and I was committed to making an A on this paper; I was determined to spare no research effort, no dedication, nor any steadfastness to make an A on this paper. It was a particularly difficult class and it was rare that anyone ever made an A with this professor.

I was sure that I would be the exception to the rule. My Type A personality kicked in and I was committed to ace this class, which meant acing this research paper. I was committed to it. When I got my paper back, there was an F on it.

Not only did I not make an A, I did not make a B, C, or a D either. There was an F in bold red across the top. You can imagine how crushed I was because I did my work, I clocked all-nighters, I researched, I studied the original languages, and I dug in. Even though the paper was only to be ten or twelve pages, I had eighteen to twenty pages.

I had footnotes. I had gone the distance. How dare he give me an F! I noticed a handwritten note on the bottom of the paper below the big, red F.

It said, “Great scholarship, great detail, and magnificent effort, but you answered the wrong question.” All that work mistakenly addressed the wrong thing. It wasn’t that I was not sincere; it wasn’t that I was not working hard; it was simply that I had addressed the wrong thing. I had been so focused on myself and what I wanted to achieve, that I missed the professor and what he wanted from me.

In my desire to score high, I missed out on what could have been a wonderful assignment because I did not understand what the professor wanted from me.