This is only a test!

When you were a kid, remember being annoyed whenever your favorite tv show was interrupted for 30 seconds by "This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. This is only a test. The broadcasters of your area in voluntary cooperation with the FCC and other authorities have developed this system to keep you informed in the event of an emergency. If this had been an actual emergency, the Attention Signal you just heard would have been followed by official information, news or instructions. This concludes this test of the Emergency Broadcast System." Blah, blah, blah...how that drove me nuts! Can anyone else relate?

But you know, those emergency system tests are a lot like the trials that come into our lives. They're unscheduled, usually unwelcome interruptions, and they always seem to come at the worst possible time. But unlike the test patterns on tv, life's trials don't last for 30 seconds and then disappear (how I wish, huh?!) Nope, they can last for days, weeks, even years. And the exact reason for them may never be completely clear to us. Trials can make us feel helpless, but we do have control over one vital element of a trial - how we respond to it. But the reality is as trials are indispensable to our spiritual growth. We cannot grow as we should without them, as much as we wish we could.

Paul writes, "Every detail works to your advantage and to God's glory: more and more grace...more and more praise! So we're not giving up. Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace" (2Co4:15-18 TM). And Job adds "But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold" (Job 23:10 NIV). It takes a lot more heat to produce gold than it does tin. Looks like we're going for the gold!