The other day I took an online quiz to find out my “social biome.” I wasn't exactly sure what a social biome was when I took the test, but I am happy to report that I got a high score. Yay me.

I didn’t bother taking the quiz on my exercise IQ, because I already have a pretty good idea what my IQ was when it comes to exercise.

I like interactive quizzes, especially ones that make me feel good about myself, and if I don’t like the results of the quiz, I can go back and retake the test until I get the result I want. I also enjoy checklists like five fool-proof ways to organize my closet, or tips for a stress-free life that include take a nap, listen to music and play with a pet. With every tick mark I make, I achieve an outcome I can see every time I open a closet or toss a toy to my dog—or not.

There is something about us humans that prefer tangible outcomes over ones that build slowly over days or even years. We prefer results now rather than in the fulness of time.

In Exodus 32, the children of Israel had enough of waiting for Moses who had gone up to Mount Sinai to meet and speak with God. Instead of waiting for “this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt,” (32: 1), they told Aaron to make them a god who would go before them.

Huh? Didn’t they already have the one true, promise-keeping God to go before them. Never mind. The people wanted an outcome, and Aaron delivered. . . a golden calf.

Like me looking for affirmation in a man-made online quiz, those chosen people were looking in the wrong place.

Hebrews 11 reminds us that faith isn’t a checklist to achieve a specific outcome. No, faith is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” It’s building an ark for “events as yet unseen,” (11:7). It’s considering the One who promised to be faithful, not considering outcomes—good or bad.

I look back at Hebrews 11:3, and in that paradoxical way of Scripture, I am reminded that by “faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen is not made out of things that are visible.”

The word of God, the Word that was in the beginning, the Word that was with God and was God—this is the Word that became tangible and visible. This Word became flesh and lived among us. This is the One that John and the other apostles saw and heard and touched with their hands. This is the One who invited Thomas to “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” (John 20:27b).

As Thomas obeyed, he put his hands out and touched; he saw the outcome of the Word becoming flesh for him, for us—he felt and saw the scars of eternal life.