Pop Quizzes

    

            Remember pop quizzes—those sudden tests that teacher give to see if and how you’re mastering the subject? No time for questions or review, just show what you know on the spot. Your heart races a bit, but you have no choice. It’s right in front of you.

            That’s how I felt the other day. Someone shared her trials and difficulties. As I listened, a thought—the makings of a pop quiz—came into my mind. I pushed it away, but it returned like an irrepressible dog that wants attention. When the thought sprang back, it was stronger and more insistent: “Share.”

            Stubborn and afraid, I resisted. “I don’t want to, please don’t ask me to do that,” I said knowing by then that it was God giving me a pop quiz on obedience.

            The struggle intensified. I knew the answer; I knew what to do. I wasn’t asked anything that I couldn’t do or didn’t know how to do. My resistance seemed justified, too. What I was asked to give was mine and mine to give to whom I wanted.  And if I did obey, I could get burned. In spite of my logic, God didn’t relent; he pressed for obedience and continued to ask me to give. The clash of wills heated up once more until I yielded, confessing, in doing so, that no one has anything that she has not already received from God. And what we have is not for us to hoard.

            When the fight was over, a sense of relief washed over me, not just because the conflict ended but because in yielding I didn’t lose. I won. God’s Kingdom won. More territory belonged to the King because of that pop quiz.

            The quiz was so brief. It appeared quickly, tested intensely, and ended victoriously. In kindness to me, God let me see the fruit of yielding. My fear of being genuine was unfounded, and someone was blessed because I obeyed. There is blessing in obedience, even if it is only to know that we have brought joy to God.

            I’ve failed pop quizzes in school because I wasn’t prepared or up on my lessons. In my spiritual life I’ve failed quizzes because I was off guard or unwilling to obey. On those days I was a casualty. Still, God continues to pick me up, forgive me, teach me, and test me so there are more days when I pass the pop quizzes with flying colors.

            Have you had a great quiz score lately? Let me know. I love those stories and so do others.