When I read that today's prompt was "test," my first thought was of school, and the grades I would get on Fridays in high school geometry when Miss Loughlin assessed how well we understood the week's material.
But we're called to test lots of things that have nothing to do with school. We test ideas to see if they're good or bad by trying them out We can test ourselves, to see how we measure up to our own expectations and the demands others place on us. And of course we can test others, to measure them and their value.
It always comes down to success or failure, though, doesn't it? The A you earn is worth its weight in gold, while the F is scarlet and hangs around your neck like an albatross.
It's not supposed to be like that.
Grades, and the tests that generate them, don't reveal your worth. They measure other things. How well you understood the material. (Looks like you need to review the properties of a rhombus.) How well the teacher taught you. (Maybe interpretive dance wasn't the right medium.) How well-suited the test was for you. (Maybe asking a turtle to climb a tree wasn't a fair assessment of its ability to hide from birds.)
Those are the measurements we're supposed to look at, not to see if we're any good, but to discover the areas where we can shine and what we have to offer.
That's the longest test there is, and it's the only one worth taking.
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