What’s on the test?

In previous posts I have mentioned the concept of this earth life being a testing experience.  So, what is on the exam?  Why would there need to be a test?  How is this earthly experience an appropriate test?  These are  the line of questions I want to chew on this week.

I believe there are two fundamental elements being tested:  a test of our loyalty and a test of our heart, or our desires and will.  Loyalty to what?  Loyalty to the organizer of this world and his plan, I will refer to this person as God.  How is  loyalty tested?  I think the principles of testing loyalty are evident in companies with employees, families with children, relationships, etc.  One telling situation is how the person behaves when they are alone or when they think nobody is watching.  I think God is using this same principle.  It suggests that we shouldn’t expect him constantly on the scene.  We should not be surprised if he only shows up intermittently throughout history, which seems to be his pattern–showing up, delivering his message to an individual and telling them to write it down.  Another way of testing loyalty is to make requests of someone.  The behavioral response is telling, how much is a person willing to sacrifice their personal agenda, what priority do they give the request, do they do it grudgingly or are they anxious to give of themselves.  A way of making the test more poignant is to not provide a complete explanation for the request.  Those who trust the lawgiver will obey initially out of that sense of trust and confidence in the person and not the logic of the idea per say.  Providing a complete explanation beforehand makes the test not about the lawgiver but about the specific law.  So, if God is testing our loyalty to him we should not t be surprised if certain questions remain unanswered.  We should anticipate having to step out into darkness with faith and trust.  Once the test of loyalty is over, however, one could expect explanations, but not all of them if the test is to last over one’s entire lifetime.  It is also understandable if the requests are difficult or illogical, even purposefully so,  because such requests again stress the loyalty to the person over the idea.

This idea that we must do whatever God requests presupposes that, first, we know what He has said and, second, that we understand it.  The situation becomes complicated when we acknowledge that everyone is being tested on their choices and that choices by some people can impact the available choices for others.  So we have the potential that the caretakers of the message could fail in their responsibility to get the word out or certain groups of people could be cut off from being able to hear the message, such as when government or other powers limit what is published, limit what is heard, and subsequently promoting their own curriculum, or simply so many voices pushing their curriculum that it becomes exceptionally difficult to sort through them all.  Therefore if the test is to remain fair there must be something built into the individual, call it conscience or natural law, so that even if the full message is not available there can still be a general feel between light and darkness, virtue and vice.  I would also expect that something to be critical in finding the right message and messenger, it will feel right, it will resonate in some way.

The opposite of loyalty to God is not necessary loyalty to another God but loyalty to oneself above all else.  For, if we all have that something that draws us towards God and yet we override that prompting with our choices based on what we think is best, having more confidence in ourselves and our own knowledge etc, we are in essence becoming a god unto ourself.  Our own knowledge or logic holds greater sway in our decisions than following that inner something from God and/or searching for the will of God.

Besides the test of loyalty there is the test of the heart, our desires or will.   Why would this be tested?  Let’s start with what would be the potential reward of the test.  God, in whatever definition or context one understands the word, is fundamentally about the perpetuation of life and control over matter.  As we’ve talked about the only valid question being ‘is this all there is?’, the foundation of any religion or worldview is built on explanations of (1) how we, this earth, and all life came to be and (2) how life, particularly our own life, can be perpetuated beyond our own short little experience of consciousness.  If creation and life are fundamentally what God is all about then one possible purpose of a testing experience would be to decide who and how to share this creative power and privilege.  A contemplative gaze into a starry night with that thought is completely overwhelming.  Evaluating the desires and heart of an individual becomes a predictor of what an individual would do with increased power, privilege, and responsibility.

What then is being tested about our desires?  I believe the test is fundamentally about how we interact with others.  Do we seek to maximize our own pleasure and interests or do we desire to uplift and benefit others first?  I believe this is the true nature of God– that his desires are to his children, to their development, to their becoming, which makes the primary characteristic of God love.  He seeks to share his glory, knowledge, powers, even residence with his children but his children must be on the same page,  they must have the same desires and ambitions.

This implies a few side thoughts.  First, marriage and family become the foremost testing ground.   It is in the intimacy of a marriage relationship and in the rearing of children that love is truly tested.  It can be relatively easy to be thoughtful and kind to a stranger but more challenging to love those whom you know all their faults, to whom you have made yourself emotionally vulnerable, and whom you have sacrificed greatly of yourself for the benefit of the other.  Such love is the closest approximation of God’s love.  However, such love would not be satisfied to remain among family and friends, the very nature of such self-sacrificial love would want to expand and embrace all.   It would be appalled by social injustice, poverty, hate, violence and the host of unkindness man does to man.

That’s how I see it, a test of loyalty and love.