Job

 We can’t deny the reality of what is for what we hope will be or what we imagine, feel, or would otherwise like to be. It’s how we got into this mess in the first place. You can’t just identify as a child of God; you must be a child of God in word and deed for God to acknowledge you as His own. Saved isn’t a pronoun you can appropriate; it’s something that you become and are transformed into, having repented and turned your back on the world and surrendered at the foot of the cross. You become born again, dead to the world and alive in Christ, with Him on the throne of your heart, rather than in some competition with the old man for it. You are a child of God. Not a child of God and the world. There is no shared custody as far as you are concerned. God is not satisfied with getting you on weekends and the world getting you the rest of the week. He will not share His glory with another.

I’ve always found it telling who people look up to or use as examples of who they aspire to be like. Nowadays, especially the younger generation has lists that include either athletes or artists for the most part, with a handful of those who desire to contribute something to society naming someone like Ben Carson or Elon Musk. While what Ben Carson contributed to society is demonstrably positive, whether for ill or good, Elon Musk’s contribution has yet to be determined. Let’s just say I get a bit leery whenever someone wants to put chips in people’s brains, but that’s just me. I get squeamish at the sight of blood or at the thought of being powered down like a machine. Before you say it’s voluntary, everything is until it isn’t. Remember masks, and shots, and pronouns? They were voluntary once upon a time too. Now, in some places, you have to decide whether or not you like the taste of prison food before you call a guy a guy if he says he wants to be called a gal.

James could have named one of a hundred men as an illustrative example of faithfulness, obedience, and perseverance, but he chose Job, who is by far the most difficult to aspire to of all the notable figures he could have named.

We cannot minimize or trivialize what Job went through. We cannot look at the life of a man who once had it all and came to the point of saying that his spirit was broken, his days were extinguished, and the grave was ready for him and be flippant about his suffering or insist that we are as prepared to endure likewise.

It is humbling, or at least it ought to be when we consider what others have endured and persevered through, and it should stir an introspective reflection in our hearts because although, as yet, most of us have not been called to persevere in such a fashion it is not outside the realm of possibility. In all fairness, given what Jesus said regarding those of the world hating us just as they hated Him, the probability that you will have to endure hardship for Christ's sake is high.

Whatever hardship, struggle, or trial we may be experiencing presently, we must never forget that the Lord intends an end, which we may not yet see but the foundation of which is His mercy and compassion.

If your spiritual heroes consist of individuals who flaunt earthly possessions and use their position to squeeze every last nickel from the little old lady who’s one busted hip away from homelessness, then when you read about Job being an example, you likely react negatively, thinking to yourself that it couldn’t possibly be so.

Perhaps all those people who insist that James, along with Jude, the Epistles of Peter, the first, second, and third epistle of John, just to name a few, should be stricken from the canon of scripture because they grate against the doctrine they’ve fashioned for themselves are right. I mean, of all the people he could have picked, he picked Job?

It’s hard to convince people who will not allow for the possibility of the valley that God is the same on the mountaintop as He is in those valleys that are hard and difficult to traverse. He is unchanging and omnipotent, and His ability to see us through is not diminished by our trials or successes. They equate the mountaintop with God and all else with a lack of Him. If you ain’t first, you’re last, and we all know God’s kids are supposed to be the head and not the tail. That’s pretty much the average level of spiritual maturity you’re likely to run across in many a church.

You are responsible for sharing what you get from God on the mountaintop with others presently in the valley. You are called upon to look up and behold His glory shining through in the deepest of gorges because He is ever the same regardless of current circumstances. No one can stay on the mountaintop forever because that’s never what life was meant to be.

Men like Job persevered because they understood the nature of the God they served, knowing Him to be loving, gracious, merciful, and compassionate.

If they had any doubts about God’s character, if they had doubts about God’s nature, or if they questioned God’s mercy and compassion to any degree, then they would have bent and broken, fallen apart, and been scattered to the winds.

To persevere, to maintain one’s composure in the face of quick, drastic, and heart-wrenching changes in one’s life, you must know the God you serve and not simply know of Him. Knowing Him keeps us from giving up, from losing ourselves, from relinquishing hope, and from growing ever more discordant and despondent.

Trials mature us in ways nothing else can. It’s one thing to talk about theoretical perseverance; it’s another to actively practice it because you’re living practically what you learned theoretically. It’s not an easy transition. It’s not an easy mindset to adopt and cling to, but one we must nevertheless nurture so that when trials come when the valley opens up before us, we will not despair, grow weary, or lessen our pace toward eternity. Know the God you serve and trust in His providence no matter the present environment. He sees beyond your today into your tomorrows and will not waver in His promises to you.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.