Will This Be On the Test?

One of the hardest parts of teaching is when students only want to focus on “what is on the test.” When they don’t want to think broadly or wrestle with questions. They just want the answers.

I do understand their impulse to simplify things, but my concern is whether my students have surrendered to a system that promises certainty: ace the classes, get into the right college, secure the job, and live comfortably ever after. It is the college-career narrative, a script that becomes, in a certain sense, a final word.

We all crave these final words. They shield us from vulnerability, anxiety, and fear. Certainty feels safer than doubt. But in her book Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith, Anne Lamott reminds us that “the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Certainty is missing the point entirely.”

Today, certainty often shows up as the need to win arguments, craft clever rebuttals, or silence those who disagree. But those are false final words. They only reveal our deeper hunger for mystery.

And mystery is where the cross leads us. On the cross Jesus is not strong or triumphant. He is vulnerable, powerless, and silent. The cross is not a neat conclusion. It is an entry into mystery.

That is where most of us actually live, not with final answers but with uncertainty. We struggle with wounds, relationships, and limits. In fact, that’s often where we encounter God the most.

So perhaps our task is to hold our answers lightly, to ask more questions, and to leave space for surprise. Faith is not about controlling how God shows up. It is about staying open enough to recognize grace when it does.

This is what I want my students to learn. That education is not about gathering answers, but about becoming more open to the wonder and awe that accompany uncertainty.

• Fr. John Gribowich