On taking a state licensing examination

Today, I took the state examination for the auctioneer trade in the state of Virginia. Before the exam, I wrote a note to myself, thinking back to earlier stages of my life, such as beginning kindergarten, junior high school, and college, and looking ahead with some mixture of excitement and trepidation. At this point in my life, my thinking was more in the line of, “What kind of mess am I getting myself into?” I know that, without regard to how perfectly I try to do things, problems, really knotty problems, come up.

I am doing this project with my son. I, in myself, don't quite have the stamina to pull starting a new business off. Further, it appears to me that it takes a minimum of ten persons to make an average auction day happen. I do not have experience in overseeing that many persons at once, but my son, who is preparing to leave the Navy this year, does. Still, I am taking this because I can assist, and that I immediately had the time to go to the schooling.

The state has assigned the oversight of this test to a worldwide test giving company. As such, it has to be multiple choice, with the questions appearing on a computer screen. Many of usknow that this can boil down to a test on test taking. I may have been able to pass it before taking the training school. That's life in our society.

That was written before taking the test; the following is afterward.

The exam actually turned out to be more difficult than I thought. At points in it, I felt inadequately prepared for it. My son will go, in about a month and a half, to a different school than I went to, and we will match experiences afterward. Be that as it may, I believed that I passed, and on an occupational test, that is all that mattered. In this case, that I score 57 or more, and not 56 or less.

Today, I spent a few hours in the local library studying my notes, and then I took the test. I did no physical work. Somehow, after getting home, as much as I was telling myself that I was calm, I must have been very stressed, as for a number of hours, I just felt like resting.

I look forward to being able to contribute to whatever projects the Holy Spirit may put on my heart, as I have not been able to earn any money for a number of years. Back when I could, I was in the status quo groove of largely giving to a certain organizational “church” which spent most of the money on itself, although everyone, including myself, had been taught that that was giving to God. I am at peace that those days are over.

On a totally seperate topic, this evening, I took some time to listen to two of the most recent www.thegodjourney.com podcasts, put together by writer Wayne Jacobsen. In case you aren't familiar with it, its more like Wayne sharing what has been affecting him on, as the name implies, his journey of following God, and not like preaching or teaching, per se. One of the neat things about a podcast is that he isn't trapped into a certain time frame like a radio program, and one, if one wishes, can leave a comment on the website, making it more like a conversation.