Until It Was Tested…

There is an interesting observation from a person who bought some equipment, which looked good until he tried to use it – and then it wouldn’t work. “The failure,” he said, “was discovered only when it was required to perform.” In other words, it looked good – until it was tested. Many theories look good until they are tested. Many people look good until they are tested. Many seem trustworthy until they are tested. Every borrower promises to pay. With every bride and groom there is an implied promise of faithfulness, love, and loyalty. People, principles, philosophies, theories, all promise, in a sense, to solve problems. But then comes the testing time: accidents, illness, old age, death, the loss of a loved one; unhappiness, depression, some tragedy, some trouble, some temptation – and then we find how workable or unworkable they are – how functional are our philosophies. Any rope will hold when there is no weight on it – but we need to know what we can count on when the weight is heavy, when sorrows and temptations are pulling hard against us. We need moral and spiritual resources that will hold tight when the test comes. It is tragic to see someone carrying around a fragile philosophy that doesn’t sustain him under such circumstances. And it is tragic to see those who destroy faith and put nothing in its place. “Some day, in the years to come,” said Phillips Brooks, “you will be wrestling with the great temptation, or trembling under the great sorrow of your life. But the real struggle is here, now…now it is being decided whether, in the day of your supreme sorrow or temptation, you shall miserably fail or gloriously conquer. Character cannot be made except by a steady, long continued process.” Thank God for the old and proved principles of faith, work, morality, industry, honesty – for principles that prove themselves when they are tested – when they are required to perform their function.