Test
early and test often. This is the formula for academic success according to a
couple of psych profs at the University of Texas.
James W. Pennebaker and Samuel D.
Gosling decided to try an experiment using nine hundred students as lab rats.
Instead of a midterm and a final, they gave an eight-question quiz at each
class meeting including one question tailored to the individual student -
usually one that she had missed on a previous test.
This method
yielded two clear results: grades rose and teacher evaluations dropped.
Learning improved because instead of going out carousing with their pals on a
given weeknight scholars had to hit the books for the next day's exam. Student
satisfaction tanked because instead of going out carousing with their pals on a
given weeknight scholars had to hit the books for the next day's exam.
Procrastination, denial, and cutting class disappeared as viable short-term
strategies.
The disciples
have asked Jesus for a detailed syllabus about the destruction of Jerusalem.
Having heard that the final exam will be a killer (v.1-2), they ask what every
student asks: When is the test (v.3)? Jesus responds with a lot of symbolic
language that, read in light of history, points clearly to the Roman
destruction of the temple in AD 70. Now he warns them - and us - not to plan on
goofing around from day to day and then pulling an all-nighter.
Fig trees blossom
last: wait for that before you get started and your crops will rot in the
field. It was a little late to open your
umbrella after the ark had already sailed. No good buying the state-of-the-art
car alarm after the burglary.
In Jesus' day
this meant, I think, two things: First, get busy evangelizing in Judea while
you still can. Second, don't anchor the gospel to the temple since the first is
eternal and the second is doomed. In our day it means - what? Probably
basically the same two things: Share the gospel where you can while you can
because even Jesus doesn't have a copy of tomorrow's newspaper. And don't
hardwire your faith to a method, a technology, or even a nation, none of which
lasts forever.
The onset of
Advent reminds us again that time tests Christians more usefully than eternity
does. The best way to know I will be ready someday is to obey God's call on my
life today. I can best prepare for the coming of Christ on the clouds of the
sky is to welcome Christ in every homeless child of an unwed mother.
Quizically,
Doug
