Why Christian students fail (A must read)

Why Christians fail
By Folarin Samson

Success is the desire of every student. It is a corollary of academic diligence and attracts admiration and accolade from friends, families and even foes. This is why many are so desperate to succeed by hook or crook. But for a Christian student, success seems to be guaranteed and assured by several scriptural promises to which he could lay claims to. Often quoted is the fifth book of the Pentateuch called Deuteronomy chapter 28 verse 13 that says: ‘Thou shalt be the head...’ Sadly, despite these promises, only few Christian students succeed. One then asks the question: ‘Why?’ People are quick to point out that their overzealousness account for their failure. Some think they have no earth to gain since heaven is their home. Others form guesses and conjectures that suggest the hard conviction of Christian students in a corrupt society like ours where wrong is right and right wrong as their main militating albatross. It is nonetheless clear that these are merely insinuations of misinformed and cynical minds. If their allegations are anything to go by, how then do others manage to succeed? The point has to be made. Failure of Christian students cannot and should not be attributed to their faith or fate. They do not fail because it is a cross they must carry willy-nilly. As a matter of fact, success is their birth right! The scripture affirms this: ‘The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour’ Prov 12:26 But why do Christians fail? Is that suppose to be a mirage? A will-o-the-wisp question? Research has revealed that quite a number of factors are actually responsible for this disgraceful phenomenon called failure. Few of these are beyond his control while others are due to his negligence and carelessness. These are examined in turns.

Abraham Maslow, a great psychologist once propounded a theory in which he ranked human needs. The basic needs he called physiological needs. The basic needs which include inter alia: food, water and sleep are followed by other needs and at the apex of his conceptual pyramid is self actualisation. According to him, if the basic needs are not met, the next stage is unattainable. No doubt, there are Christian students that are suffering from this disease. They are embattled with financial crisis. They can barely eat three square meal a day let alone afford the outrageous prices of campus textbooks and handouts due to inadequate stipends. They are uncoordinated in class and rarely attend lectures because they know they won’t concentrate. And like Somerset Maughan rightly pointed out, ‘money is like a sixth sense—and you can’t make use of the other five without it’ What does one expect from such a student in the exam? Of course poor performance! One does not need any clairvoyance to predict this because even his CA had been blinking red. He does not have any textbook and is ashamed to borrow because he would not want to be exposed to scorn and ridicule. He has got no one to run to. His poor parents in the village had to sell the much prized land inherited from their forebears to be able to pay his school fees. His brethren in the fellowship wear scary faces as if they are saying: ‘me self never chop’ In the department he has got no friends because in the world, ‘no money, no friend’ is the order of the day. He takes solace in the night of tears when he cries to his Father for his daily bread and without grumbling accepts his demeaning grades.

One thing leads to another. Lack of money gets him into activities that can fetch him peanuts. At least, if he has no money, he has got time to barter for a token. He does what is popularly called ‘PP’ The precious time that is supposed to be devoted to private personal study is channelled into teaching noisy primary school pupils or a secondary school student somewhere. He begins to stab lectures so as to meet up with time. He is a victim of lecturers who organise impromptu tests and emergency quiz when students are fewer in class. His chances of making an A slims. If he was so unlucky that the test he missed accounts for the whole 40% of the CA, he is sure to come out of that semester wounded and battered. All because he is pursuing N8,000 or N10,000 he will be offered at the end of the month at the expense of a certificate that could fetch him a plum job in an oil company. He is choked up in activities. He is a student, an active member of an association on campus, a worker in his fellowship, an ‘uncle’ in the house of a big man somewhere and also a counsellor to some of his fellowship’s members. He begins to perform below his ability and capacity. So brilliant and intelligent that he made 50 marks in the exam, but his CA is his waterloo.

Discouragement sets in. There is no motivation from any point or angle. He settles for less. He resigns to fate and believes that’s his own lot in life. First class after all was not meant for him. His CGPA starts to plummet and he shows no concern. He hopes to escape with a 2.1 but alas his GP tilts to 2.2. Helpless and hopeless, he throws in the towel and embraces whatever chances throw at him. He consoles himself with the ‘Amended Situational Version’ of his Bible: ‘What shall it profit a man even though he gains GP and loses his soul’ And because he no longer aspires, he stops to inspire and he begins to expire by the day! He completely loses relevance and is considered a pariah, a failure, a bowl for everyone’s spit and unfortunately a reproach to the name of God.
Some other Christian students have found themselves in the despicable valley of failure due to what the Bible calls over-righteousness. They practice faith without work. They don’t plan or pay attention to their academics. They fantasise and anticipate the miracle of an invisible man giving them answer to questions in the exam hall which rarely happen and so when they fail, they are quick to pick on God and vent the fury of their self-inflicted failure on Him. They never realise that God seldom does what men can do.

If there is anything that fans the ember of failure, it is laziness. Sir Thomas Buxton captured it all when he said: ‘Laziness grows on people; it begins in cobwebs and ends in iron chains...’ Some Christians are lazy and flabby. They don’t write notes in class, they hurriedly write assignments and starts reading for exam the day the exam time-table is pasted on the departmental notice boards. What do they spend the time doing ? Gisting. Talking. Debating. Eating. Playing. Before they could bat an eyelid, the exam time is near. They are caught unprepared or ill-prepared. Only to face the furious dangling red pen of their lecturers on their badly written exam scripts. They are ashamed to wobble their feet to the notice board where their F’s are curiously waiting for them. Too late to cry when the head is off.

While it is not sufficient to conclude ipso facto that the Christian student is solely responsible for his woe of failure, he is largely accountable for his successes and defeats. Difficult and hard-to-please lecturers can however stand on his way to excelling. It is no news that some faithful Christian sisters have had cause to carry over courses because of a randy lecturer who desires to have carnal knowledge of them in exchange for good grades. It is not also strange that there are still bad legs among academics who threaten to fail students unless they collaborate, cooperate and contribute out of their meagre allowances to ‘oil their palms.’ Neither is it new that there are also masochists among lecturers who delight in failing students and relishes the sight of a distressed student who despite all his assiduous studying still fails. They will go any length to ensure no student surpasses their own records because in their own days as students, they believe some other people stood on their way. They therefore sit as retributive lords dispensing unjustifiable justice to their hapless victims who must pay dearly for a crime they are ignorant of.

The family background is another contributory factor. Christian students who come from broken homes could be psychologically affected. Many a believer have failed because of inferiority complex. They see themselves as not being able to match equally their colleagues because they are children of wealthy people in the society. They believe the plebeian-patrician dichotomy in the society cuts across every area of life including academics. The young Christian student looks down on his own ability. He believes he cannot do better than them and says it repeatedly to himself. His mental faculty adjusts to his mind set and true to it, he performs averagely and is limited by his short-sightedness and low self-esteem. Perhaps this was what Solomon saw that made him remark: ‘I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth’ Eccl 10:7 ‘There is nothing spectacular about him’, his colleagues will spitefully comment when his name crops up in discussions.

There are Christian students that have failed due to satanic manipulation. It is not uncommon to hear of missing scripts, missing results and other Satan-engineered mysterious occurrences. There are also students that have lost their composure to write exams because of a bad news they received from home few days to exam time. Some students fall sick only during exam time which adversely affects their performance. Others have failing health. Unknown to some are generational curses that have been pronounced on their family that they will not rise above their peers. They find themselves struggling. They work like elephants but eat like ants in terms of result; nothing to show for their hard labour.

The status quo is maintained through prayerlessness. He ‘jerks’ 24/7 in the library and relegates prayer to the background. When he decides to pray, he slowly and consciously drifts into sleep, begins snoring heavily and generously oozing out large gob of saliva. Alexis Carrel once noted that the ‘most powerful form of energy one can generate is not mechanical, electronic or even atomic energy, but prayer energy.’ Too many anomalies are attributed to acts of God. He is not ready for a change,another ‘Jacob at Jabok’ experience. The devil therefore has a field day. He savours the hot tears that stream down his cheek at the discovery of another disappointment in his result.

In conclusion, I will like to emphasise that God is interested in the success of His children and that was why he made ample provision for it. But the scripture cannot be broken: ‘...whoso breaketh an hedge, the serpent shall bite him’ Eccl 10:8 A Christian student who does not play his part cannot expect God to become a magician. If he breaks the fundamental principles of success like proper time management, avoidance of procrastination and others highlighted above, he is sure to face the consequence of his action. But as to the uncontrollable factors and limitations, he should seek for counselling and be open to the leadership for financial, moral, psychological and material support and assistance.