It seems that one of the most fearsome things that can be faced in the UK – or Ireland and even the rest of Western Europe for that matter, Rick has just encountered. It is the practical driving test. In order to complete the requirements for a full UK driving license, one has to pass three tests: a written, a computerized hazard perception test and the third and final is the dreaded behind the wheel, or practical, driving test. The driving test is spoken of with wide-eyed, hushed terms: what the tortuous rite of passage is for a young jungle native – this is the UK’s equivalent. It is designed to be a genuine test of a new driver’s mastery of his vehicle and the road. It is taken very, very seriously. The testers are extremely picky, and the slightest mistake results in automatic failure. Virtually no one passes on their first go – including me!
Yes, I am included in the long list of practical driving test failures. I took the test in the middle of this month (February) and even after taking driving lessons the tension from the pressure must have gotten to me. Yikes, for the first time, my car’s wheels brushed the curb during a parallel park – an automatic failure. I was quietly confident going into it, especially as it was occurring during a week when I had received a bunch of good news from fall-out of the accident in January. But now we have to pay the expense of another test which, by the way, is set for Tuesday the 8th of March. I need your prayers; fervent, sincere and serious ones for success on that day. May God have mercy on my soul.
It makes me think of how thankful I am for passing God’s test for entering into everlasting life. Too often, we think that He has a standard that has been set just as impossibly high as the practical driving test. We feel that we must behave in absolute perfection – our wheels mustn’t dare brush the curb either. We may think that “God is our co-pilot,” holding a heavenly clipboard to mark each and every mistake as He critically scrutinizes our every move. But the reality is He is gracious and understands the total impossibility of us being “good enough” to earn our salvation. “For by grace you have been saved by faith…not a result of works,” Ephesians 2:8,9 says. The Lord Himself passed the test for us by dying in our place for our sins on the cross: “for the death he died, he died to sin,” Romans 6:10 says. It goes on to say “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.” (8:31-33) Thank you God for having mercy on my soul!
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