I recently gained a great insight about the heart of the Lord toward his people in the middle of a conversation I was having with a friend, and I wanted to share. Buckle up!
When I first started college in 2016 at UNLV, many of my friends who were already in college advised me that if I wanted to do well, I needed to go to “office hours.” Coming from high school, I had never even heard this term before. If I wanted to speak with one of my high school teachers, I knew I could find them in their classroom before or after the school day. College is different; professors have offices, and thus, dedicated “office hours.”
At first, the term seemed pretty self-explanatory. I assumed that these must be the “hours” when the professor is physically in their “office,” though it seemed odd to me that by my definition, many of them were only in their office for 1 hour a week! I later learned that my definition of “office hours” was simply incorrect. Professors are in and out of their office all throughout the week, but “office hours” are a timeframe set aside specifically for students to come to the professor and ask questions. Students can come with homework questions or grade concerns, for exam preparation, or even just to brush up their understanding of some topics covered during lecture.
With the accurate definition of “office hours” in view, I realized why my friends had told me that attending them was one of the keys to success in college. With all the courses, assignments, expectations, and information being thrown at the student, of course it is beneficial to spend one-on-one time with the professor! These office hours provide the student with the opportunity to talk to “the expert,” ask questions, gain insights not offered in the lecture setting, have the gaps in their understanding filled, and (arguably) most importantly, to build a relationship with the professor.
All throughout my undergraduate, and even into my graduate studies, my many professors have verbalized their approval of, and appreciation for, students who come to their office hours, eager to learn and ask questions. This makes perfect sense to me… these people are professional educators. Their job is to educate their students in the area of their own expertise. They desire to share their knowledge, and who more enjoyable to share with than those that are the hungriest to learn?
As a graduate student, I have been granted the awesome opportunity to teach a few electrical engineering courses for UNLV, and I have been doing so officially since the spring of 2022. I am not a “professor,” but I am an instructor (all the same in terms of the responsibility to educate the students), and I love to teach.
The instructor for any course has the opportunity to take a look at the subject matter as a whole and to determine the best way to break it down and present it to the students in a clear and concise manner. The instructor is ultimately the one who writes and grades the students’ exams, meaning they know exactly what the students need to know in order to do well in the class, perform well on the exams, and ultimately, pass the course. In fact, aside from methodically lecturing on only the most relevant topics, the instructor crafts homework assignments and quizzes tailored specifically toward building the students’ understanding in the areas most relevant to succeeding in the class at hand, and beyond.
Nonetheless, learning, especially in STEM fields like electrical engineering, is difficult. The topics are dense and require prerequisite knowledge in areas like mathematics and physics, demanding intuition and fluency with unseen phenomena like electric and magnetic fields, electrical currents, waves, etc. Even the most exceptional instructor who lectures incredibly well, explaining concepts clearly and without error, will inevitably leave students with many questions and much confusion. This one-way communication (from instructor to student) is simply insufficient.
I often talk with one of my previous graders, explaining the frustration I have with many of the students in my own courses. They tell me that they “need to pass desperately” and they claim to have “tried their hardest,” but their actions do not align with their words. Merely saying that you “tried your hardest” simply does not equate with demonstrating a true desire to learn, which drives a student to actually try their hardest, and almost always results in the success of the student.
The students that frustrate me are the ones who “need to pass desperately,” but never come to a single office hours session to get help… the ones who “need to pass desperately,” but never ask a single question in the course discussion forum. The reason I get so frustrated is because I too want them to pass… and not only do I want them to pass, but I want them to learn. I want them to feel the accomplishment of understanding, and ultimately, of course, I want them to succeed!
As their instructor, I know exactly what they need to do in order to pass my class. Furthermore, as the learned, I know the mindset they need to have in order to learn in this field. Having prepared for and taken dozens of exams myself, I know what it takes to properly prepare for exams. A current graduate student and employed electrical engineer, I know what it takes to be a competitive applicant for graduate school, or for an electrical engineering job. (Disclaimer: in no way am I the best person to talk to on these matters, but I do have enough experience at this point to offer relevant and meaningful advice.)
Some will assure me it is out of the fear that they might “look dumb” that the students refuse to ask questions, but that is ridiculous, and subtly deceptive. Is not the student less knowledgeable than the instructor by definition? Is not the very nature of the teacher/student relationship that the teacher, who invariably possesses more knowledge than the student, is to share his or her knowledge and understanding with the less experienced, less knowledgeable student? If you think about it, the goal of “not asking any questions” by this reasoning is actually to deceive the instructor into thinking the student knows more than they actually do. To do this is to lack humility, and to deny the reality of the student’s situation. The truth will come out in the end anyway, by means of examination.
Whatever the reason for the near-emptiness of my office hours may be (and I have plenty of guesses), here I sit, semester after semester, with what I feel is a mini wealth of information, knowledge, and experience, just waiting and desiring to share it with my students, who never come to me. Instead of coming to me with their questions, confusions, and concerns, they simply fail. Instead of approaching me with their questions, they let their questions go unanswered. Instead, they seek advice and knowledge from their classmates, who are also lost – the blind leading the blind – before seeking it from the instructor, who has the answers to their questions… whose entire job it is to have the answers to their questions. I think to myself, and even say aloud to those closest to me, “if only they would come to me, I would help them!” And just as the words leave my lips, I feel a unique closeness to my God, my creator.
I had an exchange today with my former grader. She said she feels bad for the students, because they probably “feel stupid.” My response to her was, “I just wish they would come to office hours and ask questions, because I don’t even get the chance to give them any advice or encouragement when I NEVER MEET THEM.”
It was in this moment that I felt a profound lesson hit me from on high. Here I am, a mere human teacher with less than a decade of experience in my field, saddened and frustrated because my students won’t come to me for help when I feel that I know what they need, and I long to give it to them. It brings me joy to impart my knowledge on others, and to watch them grow, and learn, and succeed. By comparison, I can only imagine how the Lord, God Almighty, the God of the universe, the creator of all things, who quite literally knows all things, and who knows each and every one of us, and who knows exactly what we need in every aspect of our lives, LONGS for his creatures to come to him with their burdens. In the same way I watch my students struggle and, behind the scenes, express my sorrows and frustrations to others regarding their situation, surely, the God of wonders expresses His own sorrow and frustration with mankind all throughout scripture, all throughout history, revealing His heart.
Matthew 11:28-29
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Matthew 13:15
15 For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and with their ears they can barely hear,
and their eyes they have closed,
lest they should see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their heart
and turn, and I would heal them.’
Mankind is largely lost; people face depression, anxiety, hopelessness, confusion, despair, and yet, many still refuse to turn to God, even at their very lowest. Similarly to how “lost” students would rather seek “help” from other “lost” students than from their instructor, mankind would rather seek “help” from friends, family, television, social media influencers, and others… very often, the blind leading the blind… rather than from the Almighty God, who created them, and who in every moment simultaneously knows, possesses, and is, exactly what they need.
2 Timothy 4:3
3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
My office hours are typically twice a week for an hour and a half, or a total of 3 hours a week. That’s about all the time I can set aside in a finite work week, while balancing numerous other responsibilities. In stark contrast, the door to God’s office hours was opened upon creation and has yet to close. There is no “bad time” to enter into His office. In fact, millions of people could pour into His office at once, or even continually for centuries on end, and the wait time remains 0 minutes. C.S. Lewis, as he often does, puts it best:
God is not hurried along in the Time-stream of this universe any more than an author is hurried along in the imaginary time of his own novel. He has infinite attention to spare for each one of us. He does not have to deal with us in the mass. You are as much alone with Him as if you were the only being He had ever created. When Christ died, He died for you individually just as much as if you had been the only man in the world.
– C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
He is at every moment ready to teach, to guide, to instruct, to comfort, to listen, though He knows what we need before we even ask (Matthew 6:8).
When we, as students (I’m still a student), sign up for a class that is particularly difficult, other students who have already taken that class might instruct us, “just abuse the office hours and you’ll be fine.”
Life can be difficult, no doubt. But God is the author of life. Just abuse the office hours, and you’ll be fine!
Cross-Talk Blog 
Leave a comment