Pop Quiz!

"Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. Matthew 24: 45-47

Jesus is still talking about the end times. He starts off by making the point that no one knows when it will come; even he didn’t know.

Only God knows.

Then he goes back to the idea of the faithful servant and says that the ones who consistently do the work they were told to do when the master is gone (love God and love your neighbor as yourself) are the ones who are going to be ok.

I grew up being a last minute crammer. I don’t think I consistently started doing homework until maybe my senior year of high school or college.

Good thing I’m a great test taker.

But one thing that I’ve noticed is that when I live like that, sometimes life hits me with a pop quiz.

I hate it when that happens.

A good friend of mine is an actress who is on the verge of making it. She is going through pilot season right now. Pilot season is the time when the studios make the decisions on who they will cast in the pilots for next year.

It’s a pretty nerve racking process.

You basically live your life on call for the studios. At four in the afternoon you may get three new scenes that you have to perform the next morning in front of studio execs, producers and writers.

Pressure…

I remember talking to her about this season a couple months ago. She had totally revamped her diet to be super healthy, solidified her workout regimen, and was consistently on her spiritual game; going to church, reading her bible, and meditating.

When I asked her about what she was doing her reaction was simple. “If you stay ready you don’t have to get ready.”

And here Jesus is saying the same thing.

It is impossible to fully prepare for a pop quiz or surprise audition the next morning.

But what we can do is do all that is in our power to give ourselves the best chance of success.

For her it was grinding hard at her acting classes, solidifying her good relationships, and making sure that her health and fitness were on point to deal with the demands of the many sleepless nights to come.

And just as with acting… we do not become our best selves in a day. Putting God first and loving our neighbors and enemies as ourselves is really really hard to do.

But with consistent work we will learn and be prepared when those pop quizzes come our way.

Today’s Reading: Leviticus 4-5, Matthew 24: 29 - 51