The Exam

Matthew 7:13-14 Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to

destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and

only a few find it.

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except

through me.”

First off, remember that God loves you and wants you with Him for eternity, and the key to that is

choosing Him while you are trekking through the life He gave you here on earth, warts and all.

While going through school, from elementary, through high school and beyond, the grades on our

performance and our test results was what determined our progress in our learning process. Sometimes

classes had to be repeated because the requirements for passing them had not been met. Sometimes a

grade could be raised and/or a class passed by doing extra credit work, which could also be called a

“mulligan,” which is a golf term, when a bad shot is not counted against the score, and is permitted in

unofficial play. It’s a term now used all over the place as being allowed a do-over.

There are mitigating circumstances here on earth that can be taken into account, because in this life we

are living in a fallen world. There might be a reason why homework didn’t get completed, why we were

late picking someone up, or more serious, how we injured someone physically or emotionally. These

reasons can be taken into account in this life when we work at righting the situation after the fact through

extra effort, and/or apologies and restitution. God is with us during these times, and we need to choose to

walk with Him while we work through life’s exams, learn from our mistakes and lean into His grace and

mercy.

As for being in heaven with our Lord, we are in the exam right now. We can choose Him as our Lord and

Savior while we are here, until our last breath. After that it is pass fail, not ABCDF with mitigating

circumstances. “The dog ate my homework” will not work when you are face to face with Him, which you

will be someday whether you believe in Him or not. You can’t repeat the class or go for extra credit. There

isn’t a mulligan, because while you’re here you are in “official play.” Choose Him today and when you are

finished here, go directly through the narrow gate to be with Him forever. He loves you so much.

Janet Schultz