Wake Up, Look Up

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hello everybody thanks for listening to

wake up lookup a podcast where we

connect events happening in real time to

the Gospel of Jesus Christ I'm Zach wck

and in today's episode we're asking do

grades matter this is coming from a New

York Times oped piece written by Adam

Grant who you might have heard of

because he's written a couple of

national bestsellers he's an

organizational psychologist most of his

writing is in leadership and what makes

a healthy organization he's also though

a professor at the Wharton School of

Business in the University of

Pennsylvania which is one of the Premier

business schools in the country at an

Ivy League institution and in his oped

article he was making the point that

students are increasingly believing that

grades don't matter that what matters is

effort and he thinks that's leading us

to some pretty unhealthy places which I

thought was interesting uh for example

he he starts anecdotally with uh his own

experience in a recent class where he

had a couple of students approach him at

the end of the class who were upset with

their grades for the semester and and

what their their basic argument was is

that this grade doesn't reflect the

effort that I put into this class that's

an interesting thought hey I I tried

hard I should get a better grade because

of course grades are primarily about

what you accomplish not about how much

work you put into it's possible to work

hard and not actually produce results

and that's the Crux of the argument Adam

Grant's making the point that we're a

culture that has really told kids for

the last 20 years that what matters is

trying hard and they've been listening

and so increasingly college students are

saying results are not the point effort

is is in fact 2third of college students

in the United States believe that trying

hard should be sufficient to pass a

class that trying hard is the point not

the result in fact most college students

according to Grant believe that they

should get a B just for showing up for

class so if I show up I get a B if I if

I do well result wise maybe then I get

an A their point is what matters I'm

trying not that I can actually pass a

test or write a good paper but is that

what matters it's an interesting thing

because it's a broader conversation than

just college students for all of us in

every industry we're in or relationships

we're in uh we have to determine what

actually is the metric by which we're

going to evaluate ourselves results or

effort does it matter if I lose weight

or if if I'm just dieting does it matter

if I gain muscle or if I just go to the

gym does it matter if I make Financial

progress or if I'm just trying to live

on a budget how are we going to evaluate

ourselves and Grant's point is a great

one I think if we make the conversation

all about effort it will stunt our

progress as humans he he uses the

example maybe you can resonate with this

from your own college experience that a

lot of students will not study until the

night before an exam and then they'll

stay up all night the night before

slamming for the test and what he says

is when they perform poorly on the exam

they will say well that's not fair I

tried hard but probably what they should

be saying is hey maybe my strategy or

method for studying is not good maybe

sleep matters and maybe I should have

started studying early on in the

semester because that kind of thinking

will actually lead to

self-improvement if we convince

ourselves even spiritually that what

matters is that I'm getting up every

morning and reading the Bible what

matters is that I'm praying and we

disconnect from actual results am I

developing my understanding of who God

is am I developing a heart that's more

open to what he has to say to me am I

growing in my obedience if we make it

only about effort and not at all about

result we'll end up wasting a lot of

time and I think even actually uh losing

the reason for why we're doing something

maybe you're experiencing this you're

getting up in the morning and you're

spending time with God but it feels

pointless and it feels fruitless I think

that's probably because you've

disconnected it from the why what is it

you're supposed to be seeing what is it

it's supposed to be producing I think of

Psalm 19 for example where the psalmist

says that the law of the Lord is Del

delightful it's good for the soul

because it makes wise the simple it it's

the gaining of wisdom that is the point

I think Grant is giving us insight into

something that can really help us

spiritually and that is a reorientation

not just saying what's the effort I'm

putting into growing spiritually but

also saying am I seeing results and if

you feel like your effort is not leading

to results maybe seek some counseling

from an older brother or sister in

Christ or from your pastor to say hey

how can I change my strategy of seeking

to grow in my knowledge seeking to grow

in my obedience to Jesus how can I

change what I'm doing so that I actually

am growing effort matters but so does

results and results often show us if our

efforts being spent in the right place

here we are at the beginning of a year

let's make sure we're pursuing both of

those things with equal Vigor especially

as it relates to our relationship ship

with Jesus hey thanks so much for

watching this episode of wake up lookup

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