Test Pattern

I am a child of the 60s and 70s. Being such a child, one lived under the threat of nuclear destruction at any moment – or so we were lead to believe. In order to prepare for such eventualities by our enemies we were always practicing safety drills.

I recall that at Noon every Friday a huge air siren would blow from the top of City Hall, as an “all clear” signal. If we heard that siren at any other time we were to seek shelter. At school, we would practice seeking shelter by either getting under our desk top or lining up in the hall and crouching on the floor next to the wall. Neither one of these “shelter” methods strikes me as providing much of it, buts it’s what we practiced doing on a regular basis.

The most annoying of all the constant disaster-avoidance preparation had to occur while watching television, however. There you are enjoying a perfectly good program then suddenly and without warning a “test-pattern” appears accompanied by a loud horn. Then a voice is heard stating “This is a test of the emergency broadcast system. This is only a test. For the next 60-seconds the broadcasters in your area are conducting a test of the emergency broadcast system. If this had been an actual emergency the siren your heard would have been followed by …”

It was the most annoying thing in the world. It was sudden and unexpected. It was loud. There was no way to make it go away. It was on every channel, of which there were only three, four if you counted PBS. The only thing to do was sit there and wait for “the broadcasters in your area” to finish the test and restore normal programming.

But as annoying as that test was, it turned out to be pretty good practice. Turns out God does pretty much the same thing. God has this way of suddenly and without warning throwing me into these tests and challenges.

My life appears to be running smoothly then I’ll be interrupted by an event that will really test me. Generally speaking, there is no way to speed up these trials. There is no way to make them go away or avoid them. I just have to be patient and persevere through them.

We are told in James to “count it as joy” when we find ourselves in various trials “knowing that the testing of faith produces patience.” (James 1:2-3). Well, let me say now, that I am one joyful and patient person! Which is really to say, God has put me through lots of trials of faith.

It seems as if I get through one and there not too long afterwards I encounter a new and improved trial. That’s the ladder of faith we are asked to climb. We can stop and stay at any rung on the ladder we choose but if we want to climb higher with our God then we are going to encounter periods of testing. The higher we climb the testier things can get.

However, we are not alone during the testing; we have all the help we need to be successful, although it might not feel like it. David was promised that He would be king and rule the land. But to get there God had to prepare him and test his faith. David went through many, many trials along his way. Many times he felt he was not going to make it. Things got so bad he found himself hiding in a cave. There were times he got so off track and appeared not to be headed in the right direction but in the end David did sit on the throne that God had promised him.

When that test-pattern appears in our lives we need to be not so quick to try and make it go away. But try to embrace it. See it for what it truly is – an opportunity to grow closer to God. Because the test will end, our normal life will be restored but in the interim we will have become so much more of what we and God aspire for us to be.

I'd call that the ultimate safety drill.
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