We all go through seasons in life that are challenging. I recently had someone tell me that I was being “tested” in my own season. I grew up being taught that life is a “testing ground” to establish something more in the next life. Since these tests just seem to pop up at terribly inopportune moments in our lives, it’s easy to see God like the boss in the movie Office Space. “Not now, Lumbergh, I’m kinda busy.” Or perhaps the boss in the restaurant scene, “We need to talk about your flair.” Maybe I’m theologically off here, but I wonder if God has any need or interest in forcing me to bend to His Will. With each trial that I’ve experienced in life, and had the opportunity to take stock of, I’ve increasingly come to believe that God, like a good parent, must simply be motivated to see me develop the good character and skills needed to survive and thrive in this world as much as any other.

No one likes tests. Maybe that’s why we’re tempted to see God as that overbearing professor who everyone dreads because he or she seems to absolutely delight in watching students squirm on exam day. Perhaps our thinking is further shaped by our consumer culture and its demand for instant gratification. In the academic sense, a test or exam is merely a single moment in time that we endure to immediately receive some credential afterwards. Often, obtaining a credential is more about what you’ve paid than what you’ve done to earn it. I see it all the time in business. “Yes, I’d like a side of fries with that certificate.” It’s easy to forget that the pain we experience is often while traversing the long road that leads to the test itself. When we’re mature, we choose the path to learn and grow, recognizing that we need to become something more than we are today “for our good.” We’re willing to “do the work” and “experience the pain.” Before we reach the maturity required to choose that path for ourselves, our parents choose it for us. Honestly, would any one of us have self-enrolled in grade school?

I have felt twisted, reshaped, and reformed in recent months. It has been painful. It has not been fun. But at this stage of life, I know that I’m being twisted rather than tested - reshaped and reformed into something better. I feel “bent into shape” rather than “bent to God’s Will.” So I believe that this time of reinvention has been required to move further from impetuous youth, and on through the realities of midlife. As much as I might dislike the pressure of it, I’d have to choose the journey again, to be oriented to the ultimate prize. I’m reminded that “education” is literally called “formation” in some societies. That’s a great name for it in my opinion. You are being “formed” into something new, for your good, and for the good of those entrusted to you.