A 6am test

Remember the feeling in high school or in college when you had an 8am test? You were barely awake at that time in the morning, and yet a big test loomed ahead of you in your first class of the day.

Well, how about a 6am test? Here's the scenario that unfolded at our house this morning...

I woke up this morning to the sound of Gene talking on the phone downstairs. I glanced at the clock. 6:00. Who could he be talking to this early in the morning? I stumbled down the stairs and asked, "What's going on?" He began to tell me that our rental car (that we have for this week while our van is in the shop) got towed last night. We had been sure to put the little parking sticker in the window, though, so Gene didn't know why it was towed. Upon calling the towing company Gene was told that the HOA had changed the parking sticker color, and we had the wrong color in our window. Our landlord should have sent us the new sticker. Gene talked to our landlord then, and he reported that he didn't get any new sticker in the mail.

In the meantime, Del came to our rescue (again!) and took Gene to the towing yard to get our car. The woman said, "Cash or credit." Gene pulled out his wallet only to find that his credit card was not there. He figured he left it at the restaurant the other day. He began walking away, saying that he'd have to come back later to get the car, when he randomly stuck his hand into his coat pocket. His credit card was in his pocket! Praise God.

Before Gene left this morning I said to him, "Why would God have this happen to us? I don't see any good that could possibly come out of having our car towed!"

After Gene left, I sat down to do my quiet time, knowing that I greatly needed God's Word near to my heart at this moment. I opened up this daily devotional that I printed from online by Octavius Winslow, called "Evening Thoughts." Here is what it said...

Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you; but rejoice inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings. 1 Peter 4:12, 13.

If, dear reader, you are in possession of real faith, even in the smallest degree, expect its conflict and its trial. It is truly remarked by the holy Leighton, that God never had but one Son without sin, and never one without suffering. The existence of faith seems necessarily to imply the endurance of suffering—not because of any intrinsic defect in faith, but in consequence of the impurity of the heart in which that faith is lodged; its perpetual admixture with the alloy of a mind but partially renewed, its constant contact with the objects and scenes of sense and of earth, render trial as essential to the purification of faith, as the flail to the pure wheat, and as the crucible to the precious metal.

The trials and temptations, therefore, with which God visits His people, are designed as tests of faith. Without them we should lack some of the strongest evidences of experimental Christianity. Who would wish the stubble and the chaff to render doubtful the existence of the true grain, or the tin and the dross to obscure the luster of the fine gold? Welcome, then, every trial and test of your faith. Welcome whatever stamps its reality, increases its strength, and heightens its luster. Nor be surprised that this, above all the graces of the Holy Spirit, should be a mark for the great enemy of God. As faith is the grace which most glorifies God, which brings the greatest degree of joy and peace into the soul, and which constitutes its mightiest shield in the conflict, it becomes an especial object of Satan's malignant attack. The most Christ-exalting, God-honoring, and sanctifying of all the Spirit's graces must not expect to escape his fearful assaults. If this "gold " was "tried in the fire" in the sinless person of Jesus, is there not a greater necessity that in our fallen and corrupt nature it should be subjected to a second process of trial? It was tried in the Head, to show that it was real gold; it is tried in the members, to separate it from the alloy with which t becomes mixed in its contact with our hearts. In the one case, the trial was to stamp its divine nature; in the other case, the trial is to purify it from the human nature. Thus are we honored to suffer, in some small degree, as our Lord and Master suffered. Therefore, beloved, "rejoice, inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy."

I think God answered my "Why?" question. As Winslow said, "The trials and temptations, therefore, with which God visits His people, are designed as tests of faith." God was testing my faith, and this is one test that's more important to pass than an 8am Algebra test.