It’s Sunday evening, and the NBA playoffs drama is pulsating with peak emotional tension as Toronto and Milwaukee enter a ferocious double overtime contest. However, with determined discipline, I click the remote power off button before the final overtime period begns. A momentum event of greater magnitude is calling.
The prompt 4:30 Monday morning Union station train departure time would not accommodate my relishing this overtime thriller. Monday was going to be a grand family moment! Matt Daley would be graduating from Yale and being there, with the rest of the family, to wildly cheer and relish his marvelous accomplishments was a supreme must.
There is something about graduation that places us in an overcoming frame of mind. Overcoming power is vital if we are to successfully combat life’s challenges. Like our academic pursuits, our spiritual journey takes us to learning experiences that provide each of us with a customized curriculum. We enter into faith-expanding circumstances that on reflection are good for our souls, but usually are accompanied by faith-questioning despondency, unless we look up and yield to the mystery of God’s movement in our lives.
Unlike other learning experiences, the proverbial testing times of trouble at times seem to have all the memos announcing summer vacation always going to spam. Our ready textbook, the Bible, that comes in so many portable formats today, is however a ready Cliff’s Notes resource, chocked full of great case studies that inform us when trouble-testing arrives. For example, there is:
Abraham on mount Moriah
Moses in wilderness exile
Joseph in a depressing jail
Hannah in tormenting anguish
Mary in frightening waiting
Esther in trepidation decision time
Jesus in showdown temptation
Paul with the thorn bush of affliction
Job in unspeakable suffering
Each of these life stories offers us a set of spiritual insights on how spiritual testing can develop robust faith.
For Abraham, a sacrificial ram cemented him as the father of faith.
Moses’s rod was redeemed to liberate a nation.
Joseph’s imprisonment enabled the avoidance of a starving world.
Hannah’s agony yielded one of Israel’s greatest prophets and an enduring song.
Mary’s Magnificat stirs the soul of humanity with its Messiah proclamation.
Esther’s courage saved a race of people.
Jesus’ resurrection enabled eternal salvation for all.
Paul’s affliction was remedied by amazing grace.
Job’s sorrow turned into a new family and fortune.
Yes, we do graduate from our times of testing! These are moments to which we should give special attention before moving forward.
I can still hear the family chorus of rafter-raising cheer when Matt’s picture appeared on the big screens. Our seeming everlasting applause when he accepted his diploma still echoes in my memory. Then, there were the first hugs and kisses, the flowers, the pink-laced gown, the special places to take pictures to eternalize the moment, and, of course, the sumptuous meal’s savor still lingers.
It is said that our lives are a string of moments, where our most memorable moments comprise four creative elements: elevation, insight, pride, and connection. So, in our spiritual journey, do we take the time to celebrate and memorialize our overcoming maturation? We should! Treat them as graduation moments! We are given plenty of hints that this is a needed engagement to increase our faith. The Passover, the stones placed in the river at the crossing into the Promised Land and, of course, Jesus’ promise at the last Supper: “Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy” (John 16: 22).
Even so, come Lord Jesus! We long to sit with you at that grand feast table.