A young man visited my office a while ago. He had worked in my department as part of his industrial attachment and was passing by to say hello. I asked him how school was and he said it was going well just the usual exam stress and stuff. I laughed and told him that when we were all in school we longed to be out and independent but we get into work and realise it’s no cool chop either. He responded saying “at least there are no exams”. I countered back with “life has its own exams”. He looked at me and said yes that’s true and left after we had exchanged pleasantries.
I mulled over that statement after he left; “life has its own exams”. Quite profound I thought. You may have left school and your lecturers behind but life is a constant journey of learning, facing tests and challenges and having to take those “exams” whether we are prepared for them or not. The exams present themselves in various forms. The job interview is an exam it its own right where your competencies and skills are judged. Whether you pass or fail depends on your output in that interview room.
And on the job, who can say there are no tests? Your skill, your dexterity and yes your integrity can be tested every day. Will you pass or will you fail?
Marriage and family life for instance presents itself as perhaps one of the most testing institutions of life. Your love, your patience, your endurance and your faith can be stretched to the limit! No matter how prepared you are, something can come along that will knock you really hard and it takes the grace of God to get you through those rough roads!
So yes life presents us with many challenges but the good news is that God gives us the grace to get through each chapter of our lives, the good, the bad and the ugly. Some tests will leave us standing alone, but in the midst of the trial, God is right there, and if we depend on Him we will come out victorious. Job was a righteous man but he was not spared from undergoing ‘Life exams’. His was a painful testing period but in the end, he passed, he did not curse God and die as he recognised that it was a testing season he was in.
Life has its own exams and how you handle them has eternal consequences. Let’s look at Joseph’s life, the young man who had a dream of a grand future was put in a pit, sold as a slave and finally landed in prison due to his choice to flee from evil. What Joseph did not suspect was that passing the test – refusing to fall into the seductive arms of his Master’s wife – though momentarily leading to imprisonment, was a doorway to the future he had dreamt off. Sometimes passing the test means losing out on something but child of God if your choice was to honour God, God will also honour you in due season!
So to all off my dear young people out there in a hurry to be done with it; let me tell you as one who has been there before that yes look forward to the end of exams and quizzes but remember also that there are far more serious tests awaiting you. Some of those tests show up when you are alone and there’s no one to judge you. Will be true to God and to yourself?
Some of those tests will leave you without friends who will understand you or even be there for you in your low moments. Remember Jesus? Every one of His disciples deserted Him at His time of trial, but He stoically went through the journey to the cross and did not allow, shame, pain, disgrace and the taunting of the soldiers to hold Him back. Can we learn from our Lord then? Can we choose to push on even though we have no cheerleaders?
Be ready to stand dear friend and be ready to plug into the greatest source of power there is, Jesus Christ, our example! He is able to pull us through no matter the complexity of the tests we face. I can’t tell you how, I can’t tell you when but I do know that He is faithful and He will show up and show off His power for your sake and to His greater glory!
The Bibles says in 2 Corinthians 2:14; “Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.”
Life has its own exams but with Christ as the centre of our lives, we can and will prevail over everything intended to destroy us! And hear what the end of the above verse says; the beautiful truth is that when we have trusted God and stood through the trial, our victory, our testimony becomes a means to make manifest the sweet taste or flavour of Christ to the world around us.
What flavour are you spreading today as you walk through life’s exams?
Shalom!
