You know those annoying people in school who loved taking tests? The ones who didn't seem to have any anxiety over it, they were just happy not to have to listen to a lecture. They would quickly fill out their test, hand it in and then just kick back in their chair, all nice and relaxed, while so many around them wanted to pull their hair out? Yeah, that was me most of the time. By the time I got to college I enjoyed tests even a little more because I no longer had to wait around, I was free to leave once that test was done. I also grew up in a different time - a time when tests were much more about seeing what I knew, not grading my teacher, my principal and my entire school system. I'll leave the modern day testing rant for another day, the point is that tests can show us what we really know - or in the case of spiritual tests, what we really believe.
Abraham has one of the most infamous tests of faith - he has already been through plenty of testing just having his son, Isaac, and then God comes to him and gives him some difficult instructions. He says take your son and sacrifice him. As many of us know Abraham gets up the next day and follows God's instructions, heads out to where God told him to go do this, and he has his son on the altar ready to follow God's instructions and God stops him, provides a ram for them to sacrifice, and father and son return home together. Abraham's faith has been tested, and he shows that he really believes God, really trusts God. In his book "Don't Give Up", Kyle Idleman talks about this same idea of testing and encourages us as believers to keep believing. He shares the story of a couple from his church going through a tragic moment and the husband makes this profound statement - "I guess this is when I find out if I really believe what I say I believe."
Those words were eye opening for me this week as our church, along with so many others, adjusts to not meeting together in the same building. Most Christians would be quick to tell you that church is not a building, that it is the people, that it is a family. And most of the time they really mean it, and yet so much of our actions don't always back up those words. We do the vast majority of our "church" stuff at the building. We gather to worship, to pray, to study, to eat (we are Baptist). Our spiritual activity becomes so centralized to this one place, and yet if you asked us if the church is the building or if it is the family, we would quickly answer - oh it's the family, it's the people. Well this is where we get to "find out if I really believe what I say I believe." Is our church bonded together in Christ, or in sitting across the room from each other? Has the Holy Spirit really started forming us into a family, or do we just share the same address on Sunday mornings? There will be plenty of ways that our faith, that our trust in God will be tested before all of this is over, but don't overlook this one. Embrace it, look forward to the test, look forward to seeing God prove that His family is about much more than a building. Be glad for the chance to be drawn closer to God and to each other, even when we have to worship from our own living rooms as opposed to an auditorium. If we do, it will be that much sweeter when we do get to be together again.
Love you guys - see you soon.
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