Pop Quizzes and Faith Tests

Have you ever found yourself facing a series of unexpected challenges that seemed too perfectly timed to be coincidence? That's exactly where I found myself recently when my car was towed, followed by my rental car, and then discovering my son's car had been towed too—all within days of each other. These events happened alongside financial shifts, legal matters, new work demands, and emerging health concerns that had me visiting a rheumatologist regularly.

Looking back at my school days, I never worried much about pop quizzes. What stressed me was measuring up to my previous performances on standardized tests. But life's adult version of pop quizzes hit differently. When my Jaguar F-Pace with its personalized license plate reading "IT'S ON ME" (symbolizing God's favor and anointing) was suddenly unavailable, it forced me to confront a profound question: Is the anointing on me or on my car? Is God's favor dependent on the things I possess?

These unexpected tests revealed something I thought I'd already mastered—that my identity and God's favor aren't tied to material possessions or circumstances. Just as academic pop quizzes prepare students for final exams, these spiritual pop quizzes prepare us for graduation to new levels of faith and understanding. They reveal areas where we need strengthening before moving forward. The challenges you're facing right now might just be preparation for your next spiritual graduation.

Ready to see your difficulties from a new perspective? Consider how your current trials might actually be divine pop quizzes, testing not just what you know, but how deeply you believe it. Share this episode with someone who's going through their own unexpected test—they might find the encouragement they need to pass with flying colors.

Transcript

YouTube Channel Updates

Speaker 1 0:03

Welcome back to Vision in the Valley. I want to thank you guys for following me and for liking and subscribing. You know that the YouTube platform is brand new for me. We've been on the audio side of business, so to speak, for three years now, and thank you again for all those who are listening via Spotify and Buzzsprout and all the other listening devices and platforms that you listen to. For your audio podcast. We have moved on and graduated, if you will, and are now doing video episodes. Those can be found on YouTube only. Unfortunately, none of the other platforms are available for me, based on my subscriptions, right? So please make sure that you're checking out Kwan Noel, vision in the Valley on YouTube to see the folks that I interview for Falling in Love with your Purpose series Again. I'd hate for you to miss out on that. And you can also listen audio if you're driving in your car or doing your little workout, whatever your routine is, you can still listen on YouTube as well.

Understanding Life's Pop Quizzes

Speaker 1 1:12

Just wanted to get some of that housekeeping out of the way. So, family, a lot has happened in this year alone and, with that being said, I wanted to talk about pop quizzes. Some students get anxious and concerned about pop quizzes, right? Do you remember what that was like, whether it was high school, junior high, however far back you have to go. Do you remember the anxiety that you felt, the pressure, the panic? I talked about my early school years and, as you can probably guess, pop quizzes didn't have the same effect on me, right, for the most part. I'm sure I had a few moments when I felt the pressure, but for the most part I just took it in stride. What actually got me were the standardized tests and, as I shared before, I always blew them out the park. You know it was again. The first time I was in the third grade taking this test was when I tested out into high school level. But I always felt the impending pressure to measure up to myself. So, instead of just being perfectly comfortable with taking a test year after year, I was always concerned that I'd measure up to myself. That's interesting, right? Not measuring up to how well my classmates were doing, or even to the national percentile, but against myself. That is such a loaded statement and it describes my whole life.

Speaker 1 2:41

But what is a pop quiz and what's the point of them? Well, a pop quiz is a test that's given without warning or without heads up. It's supposed to test your knowledge of what you've learned or what you should have learned. It should do two things, in my opinion give the student an awareness of the areas of uncertainty, and then also give the teacher an opportunity to like drill down and focus on the techniques or the curriculum to help fine-tune the learning experience. But I'm talking about how can I, the student, do this better? How can I ensure that I get what I need before this thing gets real, before I have a pass or fail grade, before I have a number associated with how well I understand things? The pop quiz is designed to be a tool to prepare us for the test, and the test is the real event. It's the thing that matters.

My Series of Unexpected Towing Incidents

Speaker 1 3:38

A number of unexpected things had happened to me from December of last year all the way to current, so I just want to share a couple of those unexpected events. The first one was about my car. It was towed one afternoon after work, and the interesting thing to me is that I had been having several dreams about not being able to find my car. So when it happened, I literally had to ask myself am I dreaming? Now I fast forward, because there was a lot involved with finding my car and even knowing, trying to figure out whether it had been stolen or if it was towed. But I'll fast forward to me securing a rental, because I still had things to do and I couldn't be delayed. So I got a rental car and then the rental car was towed. I was trying to run a really quick errand and when I came out the rental car had been towed. So you know, I'm devastated. I'm devastated, right. So then I called my son because I'm thinking, okay, he'll come to pick me up and at least I can go and get the rental car. And he informed me that his car had been towed the night before. So you guys, by now you know me.

Speaker 1 5:05

I believe in miracle signs and wonders, and I had to just stop myself like what's going on, what is happening in your life in this moment, that you would be in this spot, what is, what is the Holy Spirit trying to tell you? And during this time I'd already had a shift in my finances, I'd had to deal with legal matters that I didn't have before, I had to address some things, I had these new demands at work and now, with my medical situation, I'm now seeing a rheumatologist, I'm going back and forth to the lab. There are things that are happening that I've never had to deal with before. So these things kept happening and all I could do was pray. And then, after I prayed, I had to take some ownership in the areas that put me in those places. You know where they applied, and for the areas that it happened to me, like my health happened to me I had to remember that it's important how we wait for the answers.

Viewing Challenges as Faith Tests

Speaker 1 6:04

You pray, but then, while you're waiting for your answer, how do you show up? How do you show up when things are going crazy all around you? And that's how I felt in that space. I also had to remember that this wasn't the first time I had a real health concern. The first real health concern led me to a hospital that, quite frankly, not only saved my life, but it also restored my career. In this place, in this space, I fell in love with my purpose. So, yeah, a lot was going on, but I'd seen this before. It was not new.

Speaker 1 6:41

So I suddenly began to think of all of these events happening as a pop quiz, as an unannounced quiz to test my faith. Is God still perfect? Is his will still the only way you seek. Do you still have peace? Do you still have joy? I had to ask myself did you learn what you needed to learn? And if you did, repeating it is nothing. When we really learned how to multiply or divide or identify nouns and verbs, right Once we knew what we were doing, the quiz was nothing.

Speaker 1 7:23

It wasn't tough, it was just practice. It may have been annoying, but it wasn't tough. It was just practice. It may have been annoying, but it wasn't tough, it was just practice. It's only a challenge when we really don't know those things, or if we thought we did and we really didn't know. The quiz is to prepare you for your test, and that test leads to your graduation.

Speaker 1 7:45

So I had finally shared all that was happening with a few of my closest friends and they were amazed. They knew bits and pieces, but they had no idea that all of this was happening all at once. I like to think this is so because I showed up the same way. He didn't stop being God or perfect or holy because of what I was going through, and if he remains the same, my posture towards him and my attitude shouldn't change. Now don't get me wrong. We tire and we struggle, but we don't stay there.

Speaker 1 8:23

This pop quiz revealed an area that I needed to work on, an area that I thought I had learned a long time ago. A few seasons ago, I mentioned that, after a major car accident that could have easily killed me and my sister friend, I had prayed for another vehicle. I'll tell you that I started to pray very specifically back in those days, and each time I would pray for a specific vehicle, I got what I asked for. In that same specific way. This time I'd asked for a vehicle that was representing where I was going. I said I wanted a luxury vehicle and I had a long list and I ended up with a Jaguar F-Pace truck.

The Favor Is On Me

Speaker 1 9:12

I joke that the car actually speaks more about my personality. The emblem and the grille aren't chromed out like they usually are right, so you can't recognize the vehicle easily unless you're, you know, familiar with what the make and model look like, at least not at one glance. You have to take a moment to really look, because the emblem doesn't pop out from the grill, because it's the same color. I also say that there's a lot of power under the hood and it'll take off before you have handle on it once it's been given the permission to move forward. So that definitely describes how I see myself and I was so excited that I wanted to mark it. I wanted to mark the occasion. I wanted to mark that he heard me and even though it was something that was a desire of my heart, it didn't have to be something he allowed me to have, but he did, and so I just wanted to mark it. I wanted to stamp it. So my plates say it's on me.

Speaker 1 10:13

I was telling the world that the favor of God is on me, his anointing is on me, his oil is on me, and it hits differently every time I walk towards the car and I look at the plate. It hits differently whenever someone stops me, or just recently someone was driving out of the parking lot of the church and they stopped to take a picture of it. I had a chance to see it. It probably happens more often than I know, but at the end of the day it was a quiet victory and a confirmation of my newfound alignment with God. So in this time it had occurred to me that I was associating the oil, the favor, with the thing. Am I still favored in these times? Is the oil still on me.

Speaker 1 11:06

The car, along with any other possession, can be taken, towed, pulled away, but his anointing cannot be removed by anyone. The car wasn't, and it isn't the most important thing to me. So, yes, I have the car back. It's never been the most important thing, but it did represent something special. So I had to ask myself is the anointing on you or on the car? Is the favor on you or on the car? Because if it's on you, it's on you. Whether you're sick or well, whether you have this car or no car, it's on you. This pop quiz was to prepare me for my final, so that I could move on and be eligible to graduate, if you will.

Speaker 1 11:52

This is graduation season and not just for junior high, high school and college students. I graduated in the season too. I encourage you to look at your challenges as pop quizzes. You've already been taught the lesson. This is just to check how well you learned the lesson right, your level of understanding, and to get a chance to drill down and focus on areas of concerns or weaknesses, like I had to.

Graduating Through Life's Tests

Speaker 1 12:19

I needed to be reminded that I am who he says I am, regardless of any possessions, regardless of any recognitions or acknowledgments. I thought I'd learned that, but clearly I was associating that thing, that thing I used to tell the world that I'm favored with my actual favor. We know him to be a loving God that allows us to have many things, but those things don't certify, confirm or affirm the validity of who you are or what you've been called to do. God did that already when he created you. So today I salute you, graduates. Please use your pop quiz as a tool to prepare you for your future finals. These finals ultimately lead to more graduations. Remember that you don't measure yourself against anyone else, or even against the things you've accomplished or accumulated. Measure yourself on how strong your faith grows. You're already certified and I can't wait to talk with you soon.