Dear Friends,
I have learned a new meaning for humility. I recently registered on-line to take the Jeopardy qualifying test in an effort to become a contestant on the TV quiz show. It’s real easy to sit home in your comfy chair and listen to Alex Trebek give the clues to the whiz-bang contestants, and come up with the correct question yourself. Wouldn’t it be fun to get on the show? Make some money? So I tried.
It’s quite another matter to take the test on-line. It consisted of 50 questions that come at you one every 15 seconds and you have to type the correct response on the computer. I always thought I’d do fairly well. When Trivial Pursuit was all the rage I was pretty good. After all, my brain contains a vast storehouse of useless information. So I figured why not give Jeopardy a shot. BUZZ! Wrong answer!
The questions they asked were absurdly difficult to say the least. Who was the author of contemporary best seller Blink? What isotope of hydrogen has 1 proton and 2 neutrons? What Fauvist artist painted “Joie de Vivre?” NASA is looking for funding to study NEOs. What are NEOs? What is an 8-letter word in French for policeman? What Russian word goes with perestroika to denote civil relations with the West? What is the common bond between reel, hora, and habanera? Who is king of the fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream? What activist was assassinated in San Francisco in 1978? What alloy is copper and tin? Who wrote the Alex Cross novels? Where is George Bernard Shaw’s restored home? (Answers are below.)
Those are the ones I knew! The others were tougher. Some answers I thought of after the test was over. Drat! Should have got that one. But the questions just kept coming rapid fire with no time to think in between. No commercial breaks either. If I got 25 out of 50 correct I’d be very surprised. Ken Jennings I am not. They don’t tell you how you scored, but IF you pass the test, you MAY get invited to an in-person test sometime later this year, probably in Chicago. I’m not making any plans to go to Chicago. Oh well. I can always take the test again next year, and be humbled once again.
Fortunately, God does not require extensive knowledge of trivia. God does not give us tests, on-line or otherwise. God doesn’t ask about our IQ or what degrees we have. God has merely one question to which he needs the correct answer. Who is Jesus for you? Get that one right, and you don’t ever have to worry about being humbled. You don’t have to worry about jeopardy or double jeopardy. You’ll be the ultimate winner in God’s tournament of champions.
Humbly yours,
Pastor Bob
Answers: Malcolm Gladwell, tritium, Matisse, near earth objects, gendarme, glasnost, dance, Oberon, Harvey Milk, bronze, James Patterson, Dublin.
