Only God knows the score, so I should not weigh too heavily or take too seriously what I or anybody else thinks of me. But since he will one day ask me the Big Faithfulness Question, I'd better ask myself a few like it until that day.
—Ben Patterson
How do I evaluate myself? First I'll give you the short answer, then the long.
The short answer is I don't, or rather I can't or shouldn't. If I read the New Testament correctly, to do so may border on the presumptuous. The apostle Paul counseled a pious, even belligerent agnosticism regarding self-evaluation: "I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me." So much for self-evaluation or any human evaluation. God is the judge, not us—case closed, end of discussion, end of chapter, and end of the personnel committee of my church.
The long answer starts with the short answer and then proceeds delicately ...
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