It’s a test………

As you know, I travel a lot and spend a lot of time in hotels alone. In the evenings when the days work is done, emails all answered, and other work completed, I like to relax and watch something on the computer. In recent years I’ve started picking up DVD sets of TV shows I never got time to watch but thought I might like. One show I discovered a few years ago was a show called Eli Stone. I really loved that show, unfortunately, as happens with much thoughtful, meaningful, television, it didn’t survive the ratings game.

The show was about a young lawyer who had visions of the future and through these visions he was able to help people in their most vulnerable moments. The pressure of living with this “gift” really weighed on the main character, Eli. In the very last episode, at the end of the second season
he finds himself in another vision, this time talking to his late father, who he believes may actually be God, and who had possessed the same gift. Out of frustration he lashes out at the hardship of getting so deeply involved in so many peoples lives, and the havoc it has brought into his.

The father and son have a very interesting conversation, it goes something like this; Eli, “Was this a test?” His father answers, “Everything is a test, life is a test, you, you my boy, are passing with flying colors….. I couldn’t be more proud.”

It says in scripture that on that day when we stand face to face with our Lord, that our greatest hope should be that we hear Him say, “Well done my good and faithful servant.” The test is; will we take up His cross and carry it? What that means is that will we love others more than ourselves, live to bring joy and peace to those we serve? Will we want His will more than our own? Do we care more deeply about honoring His love and sacrifice than gaining the accolades of man? That’s the test.

Yes, life is a test, and it’s a hard test, but then, we have the the Man that wrote the test to lean on.

the pilgrim

*Photo note: Scott, my oldest son and I in the Virgin River, in Zion National Park. This shot was made during a trip we made together a few years ago. I’m not God, but the last line of Eli Stone would be my assessment of my son’s life as well.