Ready for the final exam?

Have you ever watched teachers and learners preparing for the matriculation examination, or any General School Certificate examination? Let me tell you, it’s a serious business!

Every school that is worthy of the name wants its name to appear in the Hall of Fame or in the Guinness Book of Records as one of the best performing schools.

The surprising thing is that we all know we are going to die one day, and will appear before the Judge of the world—and yet we never really spend as much time preparing for that very serious exam as good schools do in preparing their students for school examinations!

Jesus says we must get ready for we know neither the day nor the hour. So, let me put on my hat as a life examinations coach and try to help you and me prepare for our final exam.

The American entrepreneur and philanthropist Bob Buford suggests there are two major questions on life’s final exam. I believe there are at least four, and here they are:

Question 1: What did you do about God and Jesus?

I think for this one you and I need to know our Nicene Creed which tells us about the triune God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit: Three persons in one and indivisible God.

However, it is not enough to recite these as articles of faith. We must love God above all things and believe that Jesus is not only Saviour of the world, but my personal saviour as well as my role model as a Christian. I should know that he is calling me to be his disciple who must learn to be more and more like him, and his apostle who should proclaim him to the world so that the whole of humanity can know him and be saved.

Question 2: What did you do about your neighbour?

Well, who is my neighbour? Is it the man next door who never greets me and whose dogs seem to hate me? Is it my boss at work who is on a mission to find my faults? I hear God saying: “Yes, they are your neighbours. The beggar at the street corner is your neighbour, too. Your spouse and your siblings are your neighbours. Yes, your neighbour is anyone you come into contact with about whom you should do something. The beggar might want money from you, but the man next door might need a kind word from you, perhaps a greeting or a prayer. The same goes for your spouse and siblings. You should treat everyone with such love that they can see Jesus in you”. Tough, hey?

Question 3: What did you do about your shortcomings?

This is another tough one, but what it does is to highlight the importance of self-awareness in the life of a Christian.

Socrates once said: “The unreflected life is not worth living.” So I should know both my strengths and weaknesses. I must do something about my shortcomings; confess my sins and resolve to fight against temptation.

Very importantly, I must do something about that ego. See how large it is? The aim is to become less and less my selfish self and become more and more like selfless Jesus.

Question 4: What did you do with what I gave you to work with?

This question is about the Parable of the Talents (Mt 25). You see God gave each of us talents—natural and spiritual gifts. Natural talents like the skill of baking, sporting, business acumen, a good mathematical mind; and spiritual gifts such as kindness, the gift of healing, the ability to read and interpret scripture and so on.

We are supposed to be aware of these gifts so that we can use them in the service of humanity and the building up of the Body of Christ, the Church. We should not behave like the unfaithful servant who dug a whole in the ground to hide his talent instead of making it multiply.

The irony is that when the time comes you might pass with flying colours while I, the coach, might just manage to scrape through—God has no favourites, you see! But to be sure, let’s read our Bibles daily, go to church as required, say our prayers daily, and examine ourselves daily.

Practice makes perfect; and God rewards those who are poor in spirit, who seek him with a humble and pure heart.