The diagnostic

This is not a quiz. It’s a diagnosis.

The Napkin Test is built on one story Jesus told: a man going on a journey hands his money to three servants. Two of them trade with it and double it. One digs a hole and buries his. In Luke’s telling, the servant kept the money wrapped in a napkin — the kind of cloth used to cover the face of the dead. He didn’t store the gift. He gave it a funeral.

Most people who take this are not the third servant. They are working, faithful, capable people carrying something they were given and have not yet brought into the world. This test reads that one thing. It answers two questions, in order: is it planted? — the condition of the gift right now — and, if it isn’t, what is it wrapped in?

There are five patterns, and they are named for five things a faithful person wraps a gift in. Nobody wraps a gift in a flaw. They wrap it in something they are proud of — duty, readiness, safety, independence, vision. A pattern is not a type. A type is who you are; a pattern is what your fear does with your gift, and that can change.

Forty-four questions, about twelve minutes.