When I was in school, it seemed they ran a “fire drill” at least once a year.
A long, loud, kind of scary bell would sound, and we knew it was either a real fire, or more likely, just another drill.
We were formed into lines, ushered down the halls, and out the doors we went. Of course, the point was practice, so we would be prepared for a real fire.
Drills are preparations for real threats. They are "trials". They test and prepare our readiness, give us opportunity to try on the emotions and actions we would experience in a genuine crisis.
We need them and should even "count it pure joy" because they're necessary for our growth and maturity [James 1].
And trials are graduated; that is they get harder, kind of like math tests. They seem even to build on one another.
Abraham's life was like that; just consider the different trials he endured leading to the sacrifice of Isaac.
Life in the world has always been full of real dangers, threats, crises, and disasters, though some of us have been spared from much of them.
Yet now, it seems, we've got a tough drill to face; one which can really test our metal...
