Give the devil his due

A person failed my class because of not showing up for class. When this person attempted to get me to help her out, I stood my ground. This person attempted to tell me that she is dealing with a lot of unnamed stuff, and then muttered "maybe this is spiritual. Maybe it's the devil that doesn't want me to succeed."

When I countered with the idea that maybe the student is sabotaging themselves, the person turned to me and said "Oh that's right, you are a psychology person, you don't believe in the devil."

I thought about that statement. I do believe in the devil and his power. What I find interesting is that this isn't the first time the devil has been referenced by my poorly performing students. It appears that their body is the battleground between good and evil. And the devil wins when they don't get out of bed in the morning and get to class.

It is almost as if this student and others are afraid to exert their own power, that somehow it may be sinful to succeed. This student does not want to answer the question about what THEY can do about it, they want to blame someone else.

So what am I to do about this attack of Satan in the student's life? Lay my hand on their head and exorcise the demons? Will their performance go up?

That is an age old question...how much is under my control? If the Devil is keeping a person in bed, then Christianity and Freud were closer than either of them believed. The difference is that some Christians call that destructive force the Devil, Freudians call it Id.