Test Pattern

July 2, 2008

By Randy Mantik

There was a time when television wasn’t on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Around midnight or 1 a.m., most stations went off the air and didn’t come on again until 7 or so in the morning.

Well, there was one thing on before 7 a.m. — a test pattern. Usually the test pattern had circles with unusual patterns in them that helped anyone setting up the equipment at the station to get the picture signal where it needed to be.

In life, we all go through tests. Like the test pattern, those circumstances may appear to be random and without purpose. They may lack any appealing qualities. No one wants to stare at a test pattern. No one wants to experience a test in life.

Yet, God is still in control. He will not let any test or trial come your way He has not foreseen. God will see to it that anything He allows to come into your life will be used as part of your growth, not your demise. But you must trust Him all the way to the end so the purpose of it can be accomplished.

There’s no growth by osmosis here! Growth comes by keeping focused on your spiritual journey every step of the way. “What did I do to deserve this?” we wonder. “Why can’t God pick on someone else for a while?” But our tests are different from the consequences of sin. They aren’t things we “deserve,” but rather things we encounter and endure through faith. The blessing of being in Christ is knowing that in each trial and tribulation God is right there with us.

That’s the promise Paul expressed when he said, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” (Romans 8:35, NIV). While the test is running, while the test pattern is on your life’s screen, know that God has not given up on you or abandoned you. That’s why Paul goes on to say, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor

demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38,39).

One more TV-themed thought. Zenith Corporation had a slogan about its TVs: “The quality goes in before the name goes on.” For us, as Christians, it’s reversed, but still true, “The name goes on before the quality goes in.” God’s name goes on us. We are adopted into His family. And those whom He loves, He tests. He wants the quality in us — His quality. That’s the reason for the “test patterns” in our lives. And that’s why the Bible also says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds” (James 1:2).

— Randy Mantik is lead pastor at CrossPoint AG in Portage, Wis.