For Wilshire Baptist Church
On a recent visit with my parents, my mother said, “Look what I found,” and she handed me report cards from two semesters of college. By report cards, I’m talking about the sealed documents containing course grades that were mailed at the end of every semester to our parents because they were paying the bills.
I opened the report cards and what I saw wasn’t surprising but it was still cringe-worthy 37 years later: C+ in Contemporary American Philosophy, C in American Literature, C in Elementary French, C in Intermediate French, B in English Literature and B in Physics. On the other hand, there was an A in Beginning Reporting and Writing, B+ in Advanced Reporting and Writing and A in Advanced Photojournalism.
And that’s pretty much how my college career went. I did great in my major and average or worse in everything else. But I didn’t go to college because I was already brilliant or to become brilliant. I went to college to discover what I wanted to do and what I could do (those are not always the same), and take what I could do and transform those raw aptitudes into marketable skills and perhaps even talents. I also went to college to be challenged and to learn how to think, cope, persevere, differentiate, brainstorm, troubleshoot and live and play well with others in the grown-up world.
In the same manner we don’t go to church because we are holy or even to become holy. We go to church to worship the one who alone is holy; to learn what it means to be holy; and to discern how God wants to work with us and through us on a path that leads to some semblance of holiness. That path is different for each of us. A few might be led to the seminary to become pastors and ministers, but most of us learn to apply our God-given abilities for God-sharing purposes whether that is in the church or out in the world.
The good news is that while there are plenty of tests, there are no grades, no pass or fail. Nobody else sets a curve by which our performance or progress will be measured. There is only learning and growing and becoming, and that happens whether we stumble or soar.