Have you ever been tested by someone? Maybe by a boyfriend or girlfriend, maybe boss or parent or possibly your kids. Whoever it was, they probably wanted to know your thoughts or stance about a certain topic.
Now, let me ask this question again, being more specific. Have you ever been tested by God? I have. Just a couple of days ago, actually, and sadly I failed.
This test was simple—the Lord wanted me to do simple acts. I response was also simple—no. Why? I am not sure.
Let me fill you in. A couple of days ago, I was on the bus heading to work. At one stop, a lady got on the bus obviously distraught. I had noticed that in her pursuit of catching the bus, she had lost her shoe in a puddle of water. Looking back, that had to have been the last straw to a bad day, because she started crying right there on the bus.
Before getting off at my stop, I felt the Lord impress me to encourage her. But instead of words of comfort, I closed up in fear and quickly walked off the bus.
The Lord wasn’t done with me yet, for no further than 50 feet away was a homeless lady with her head down. Her body language screamed DEPRESSED! “Ok, this time, I wanted to make up for my mistake before,” I told myself. So I stopped to say something. But, still nothing. So I walked on.
My connecting bus shortly arrived. I got on and sat down. I was frustrated! I wanted to do what the Lord asked of me, but I felt so helpless in the battle against fear and selfishness. As I sat, looking out the window and pouting, the Lord gave me one more chance.
This was a simple test, the man across the aisle needed a dollar. He had asked one of his buddies but to no prevail. I got excited. I had a dollar! Actually two of them! This time I made up my mind to share, but just couldn’t get my mouth to open. As I watched the window of opportunity close, I knew I had struck out.
This is a common theme in the struggle to grow more like God. Peter, Jesus’ disciple went through the same thing. And just like Peter, we will fail and maybe often. But hopefully, just like Peter, we will learn from our mistakes.
-The Author
