This is a Test

I should have known it would happen. But still, it caught me off guard. A good while back I wrote an article for another paper reminding the readers that all people are created in the image of God, and are worthy of our respect. 

            Later that week my wife and I were driving to Savannah.  We stopped by the hospital to see a friend, went to Lowe’s to get stuff we needed around the house, and stopped to get a sandwich for lunch. I quit counting after the fifth car cut me off.  I’m not talking about having to slow down a little. No, I had to swerve into the other lane to avoid an accident twice. And the last vehicle to cut me off was fire truck.  No sirens.  Just stopped on the side of the road, and suddenly pulled out without so much as a turn signal. 

            Before I could get angry Tina was giggling.  “Remember what you wrote in your article. You knew God would test you, right?”  Sometimes I wonder why I take her to town.  Except, she was right.  Again. 

            It is true that the Lord often tests His children. He wants to know if we mean what we say. Are we going to live in the way that we claim we will?  It’s easy to talk the talk, but not so much to walk the walk.

            James wrote in his little letter, “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourself.”  The fact is that we indeed deceive ourselves if we believe that the only things that matter are our beliefs and our words.  They do matter. But what matters even more is what we do.

            The Bible says, “Jesus went about doing good.”  His children should be doing the same thing.