A Series Of Tests

A friend of mine in the college dining hall once adopted the look of a scholar gazing into the inscrutable intellectual distance, and intoned wisely:

"Life… is a series of tests."

And then promptly returned to prodding the mystery meat on his plate, while the rest of us paused, forks mid-way to either our mouths or our plates, waiting for him to complete whatever thought he seemed to be introducing. Which, of course, he never did.

Facetious curmudgeon that I am, I immediately thought of the darkly menacing "Emergency Broadcast System” announcements that appeared randomly and repeatedly on our televisions during my Cold War childhood – there never seemed to actually be any emergency, but we were always reassured with the announcer's voice-over: "This was only a test. If this had been a real emergency, we would have told you."

And I almost voiced my facetious thought in the dining hall that day, "So, when does real life start, if this is all just a series of tests?" But just in case he was simply referring to enduring the dubious food-like substance on his plate, I kept my thought to myself.

But I have often noticed that different seasons of life seem to be a sort of preparation for the next season. In the wake of Former Leader Barb half-jokingly suggesting that a number of us should have warning labels or disclaimers on our blogs, I have been wondering/pondering how a season of detox fits that pattern – is it just recovery, disillusionment finding others of like heart and mind, or is it a sort of preparatory season for something new?

And it seems to me that Bob Girard's words to me over the phone a few years back were extremely significant – that as much as we are detoxing from inadequate models of church and leadership, we have to equally allow the Spirit to shine His searchlight into our own hearts, dreams, and motivations to reveal and heal those things that need to change in us.

1. Is it possible that getting us out of the "normal" cycle of church and church leadership was as much God putting us in a place where He could refine US as anything else?
   
2. Is the season of detox the end of the journey, the doorway into some kind of detoxed enlightenment, or a transitional series of tests?
   
3. What assumptions, attitudes, or expectations have changed in us, as a result of this latest refining process?
   
4. Has anything changed? Or have we just produced a new crop of cynics and critics? If that is the case, then by all means, this blog should have a Surgeon General’s warning and perhaps a Spiritual Bio-Hazard disclaimer as well.

However, if the sagacious but obscure comment from my college friend is accurate – that life is a series of tests, each preparing us for the next leg of our various journeys – then we would do well to look above and beyond the current landscape church, and get into the trenches of the question – rightly asked of God – "what are You saying to me about me?"

We may find God much more interested in giving us insight into what He wants to do in us – individually but in the context of community – than in how we "do church". And if "doing/being church" flows out of authenticity in community, then it only makes sense that it's more important that we successfully navigate this latest series of tests, and "become the change (we) want to see".