Friday, July 24, 2009

Job 1

Tonight in our Foster Parenting classes we talked about the grieving process. We tried to empathize with the loss kids will be dealing with when they are abruptly separated from their families, home, neighborhood, school, church, friends, stuff, everything really. ..The little activity made me think of Job. The overwhelming and tremendous sudden loss he experienced.

One of the grieving steps they talked about was bargaining. People often try to bargain with God and make promises to try to manipulate Him into changing their situations. And that usually leads to the next step. Anger. When things don't change they often get angry with God.

But not Job. "I came into this world with nothing so I shouldn't think I deserve to leave it with anything either. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. The Name of the Lord is blessed no matter what situation I find myself in." This is just a staggering statement of faith and confidence in who God is and who Job is not. It's hard enough to really relate to this when you read this but to think about getting a call that all of my children had died? Would this be the first words from my mouth?

I love this book. It's odd I haven't written about it at all. So I will go through some of my favorite chapters. (I don't love the whole thing. I only like the Job and God parts, not his "friends.") But meditate on this today. Do I really trust God so wholeheartedly that I could say this statement in ANY situation? Or do I even let the stupid little petty junk trip me up and get me distracted with doubt? Listen to the song Blessed Be the Name by Matt Redman and think about if there have been times in your life you would have refused to sing it.

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