In 1997, after years of wanting but not doing, I began flying lessons. The lessons taught me how to take off and land, how to navigate using instruments and charts, and how to communicate with aviation radios.
I particularly liked learning to land.
On my third flight, my instructor Jayne pulled the plane’s throttle to idle and announced that my engine had just “died.” She asked what I was going to do. While throttling her was not an option (because I hadn’t yet learned to land), I was strongly tempted.
She then taught me a set of procedures to follow, and soon this engine-out test became a regular part of my flight training:
- My instructor killed the engine when I didn’t expect it.
- I pitched the plane for its ideal glide speed.
- I followed the airplane’s engine restart checklist.
- I searched for a safe place to land within gliding distance.
- We would glide down until Jayne decided whether I could have landed safely.
- She would re-throttle the engine, and we would review what I had done.
Week after week and month after month, Jayne tested my skills with these engine-out procedures. She drilled them into me so thoroughly, I could have landed in my sleep.
Though I never tried.
The Tests of God
Jayne taught me to fly through a series of tests. The nature of these tests—repetition and reflection—taught me to fly. Educators call these kind of tests, Formative Tests. They are educational methods whose purpose is to train students in the middle of a test, not to evaluate them; just like my flying instructor’s engine-out surprises trained me.
Each time Jayne killed my engine it was a test, but the test itself qualified me to handle emergencies safely and confidently. Formative Tests teach us today how to avoid disqualification tomorrow.
But when we think of God’s tests, we picture Summative Tests. Summative Tests measure how much we have already learned, such as midterms, finals, and college entrance exams. While Formative Tests are designed to qualify us for the future, one could say that Summative Tests are designed to disqualify us, as in “My SAT score was so low, I failed to get into Harvard.”
The Failure
Most people consider Christianity to be the ultimate Summative Test or the ultimate Entrance exam; the big spiritual test which we repeatedly fail and which repeatedly disqualifies us.
That’s why we’re scared of God’s tests. When we are barely holding our lives together, so the mere thought of a test from God—adding one more trouble—inflicts more pain than we can handle. We fear our engine-out-plane will hit the ground nose first. The final failure.
But James says, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials [for] . . . the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” (James 1:2–3). Because God is forming in us the very thing we would ask for if we knew all he knows.
God needs to speak to us, to bring about an inner strength to overcome the issues we face, but we really don’t learn the deepest lessons in the lecture hall, we learn them in the lab. And he isn’t talking to us over the radio from the tower but as the teacher sitting next to us in the plane.
Only one test is truly Summative. That test is what we believe. If we believe his tests are Summative—and failure is disqualification—then everything rests on our shoulders. But when we believe he really has done everything for us—that he has already qualified us—then every test is just another engine-out exercise.
God is teaching us to fly.
Sam
The Secret of Connecting With Another Soul
Excellent !
Coming from 50 years of flying, that was good !
Flyboy Stinson
???
From one pilot to another: God is teaching us to fly!
Sam,
Thank you! I don’t think I had a category for ‘kinds of tests that come from the heart of God’. Your language helped me find language for ways that God urges me to receive his Life and move forward in and with him. This was so very helpful!
Buz
P.S. This blog is now posted on my website, crediting you.
Thanks!
Sam, you couldn’t have offered a better description of how I’ve been feeling since mid-March 2020, when the federal government mandated our nation’s stay-at-home orders, most church doors were forced to close, and life as we had known it seemed to have taken a nose dive! During this time frame, I’ve felt like I was about to lose my “spiritual footing” more than once. And perhaps it was because I was interfering with God’s tests, rather than remaining in my seat with my seat belt fastened. So for the immediate future, that’s where you’ll find me, with my eyes on the t.v. monitor right in front, and the face of Jesus smiling right back at me!
Hi Linda,
Yes, most of us lost (or almost lost) our spiritual footing this past season. Some out of fear, some out of anger, some out of judgment, and some out of hopelessness.
Maybe my greatest takeaway from God as my Formative Coach is simply: HOPE.
Sam
Good post Sam! I love that God is giving us “Formative tests”! Once we are his by saying “Yes” to salvation, our relationship with God is finalized, once and for all. We don’t have to, nor can we, “earn more”, than we already have, by Jesus sacrifice.
Many believers think they have to keep “doing for God”, so that God will continue to love them. Jesus said on the Cross, “It is Finished!” Nothing more is required to cement our “vertical relationship” with our Heavenly Father. Now, it’s true that our actions have Earthly consequences with other humans…so our behavior DOES count.
AND there are “rewards” that God has for us. We need to be ready to receive those.
Believe it and receive it! The thief on the cross set a low bar for salvation. He neither confessed his sins, nor was Baptized yet Jesus said,”Today you will be with me in Paradise”. All the thief did was believe that Jesus was God.
What an awesome God we serve!
Thanks!
And I love the idea of God himself forming us. It’s like we have the ultimate life coaching, carefully purifying our hearts to become one with Him.
Sam
Great analogy Sam. As a pilot, I can relate, and remember well the repeated engine out “tests” What a great way to learn, and to view God’s instruction.
Hi David,
I forgot you fly. No wonder we are friends 🙂 .
And once you’ve had those engine-out experiences, it’s hard to forget the “formative” tests of God.
Thanks
That’s great, Sam! Thanks.
Thanks!
Sam,
I love that last paragraph! What a way to sum your point up! 🙂
It was fun to write. It just flew out of my pen 🙂