Feeling Like Job

All of a sudden, my car needs service.  Two warning lights came on the other day.

Then the day after that, our puppy began acting out of sorts.  Each morning, for three days, we would wake to discover she had left us some unpleasant piles by the door.  She is six years old, and this is not typical behavior.

Then my computer acquired some nasty virus while I was doing research for my latest book.  It required calling in the services of my son to get all back to normal.

Migraine meds give their own side effects

Yesterday and again today I was awakened with a massive migraine.  The kind that is accompanied with vomiting and then a debate with myself as to whether the migraine meds were still in or not.

My job was terminated, and so suddenly I have no income.

I'm starting to feel like Job.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've been studying the book of Job.  It's been years since I've spent time reading through this difficult story, and as of now, I'm about one fourth of the way through it.

People's understanding of God in those days was quite limited, and I'm so thankful we have Jesus and the Holy Spirit since then, so that we have a better knowledge of the heart of God.

Job knows he is innocent, yet his entire livelihood has been erased, and his body is covered with horrific sores.  He is suffering greatly.

His "helpful" friends (three so far) insist that if he will just confess his sin, probably a hidden sin of some sort, he will be healed, and all will be restored, and he'll find happiness once again.

Golly, who wants friends like those?

In the customary religious thinking of those times, it was believed that all ailments were dealt out by God as deserved punishment for some sin.

If I were to go along with that line of thinking, I must really be messing up these days, to have all these bothersome and painful ailments.

Romans 3:23-24 tells me, though, that everyone has done bad things.  Mercy and grace are still available.

     "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God [that includes Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and me], and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."

Because of Jesus, I don't have to view every struggle or bit of suffering in my life as a little or large zap of punishment from a frightening God.  These trials are just a result of living in a fallen world.

Someday I'll have answers for all of it, and so will Job.

For now, I just wish I could lose this migraine.