Job XC

 The lessons we learn in our season of testing are worth their weight in blood, sweat, and tears, and though the hurt, privation, hardship, and trials eventually pass, the wisdom of the lessons remains with us for the rest of our days. Many would rather forego any modicum of suffering at the expense of not gaining wisdom, learning, growing, and maturing because their fear of pain, lack, hunger, persecution, or privation is such that they will outright refuse to consider the benefits of the experience when it’s in the rearview.

We’ve all known someone who started a diet with all the enthusiasm of a fat kid in a candy store, only to throw their hands up in frustration and give up a couple of weeks in because they deemed it too hard. Others, however, stuck with it, persisted through the hardship and adversity, and committed to their course not for a week or a month but until they hit their goal and succeeded.

Every time something in life is challenging or difficult, there’s bound to be someone to offer a shortcut. An entire cottage industry has been created around shedding weight when its fundamentals could fit on a six-by-five card: Eat less, exercise more! That simply won’t do, however. You can’t monetize four words and expect people to shell out recurring monthly payments when all you’re offering them is something they’ve likely known all along. Put down the chocolate cake and go for a walk. Better yet, throw it out.

And so, in the most self-serving way possible, those profiting off the struggles of others complicate a simple premise to the utmost so they could be the ones to offer a solution for a reasonable fee. Take these pills, take these shots, eat cabbage soup until you’re soiling yourself on the way to work, stand on one leg, then on your head, say this mantra every morning, drink cod liver oil mixed with apple cider vinegar but make sure it’s with mother otherwise it won’t work, have a warm cup of water first thing in the morning, staple your lips shut an hour before bed, but whatever you do, don’t cancel your subscription to new year, new you!

Every fad works for a time, but if there is no lifestyle change, and your will is not strong enough to say no to the things you know you ought to, eventually, you fall off the wagon, roll into the weeds, and find yourself tipping the delivery guy who just brought three meat lovers pizzas, extra cheese, with a side of ranch to your front door.

Tragically, the contemporary church has taken the same model and applied it to salvation. Sure, narrow is the gate, and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it, but that was before we discovered this surefire shortcut that will simplify your spiritual walk and shave decades off the need to build up your most holy faith. Just repeat after me: This is my Bible; I am what it says I am; I have what it says I have; I can do what it says I can do! Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it? We couldn’t make it any easier if we tried.

Everyone wants to attain the prize, but few acknowledge there is a cost, count the inherent cost, and are willing to pay the whole freight because they understand the value of the prize. It’s not because I say it, but because Jesus said it that it matters. Some things are the way they are no matter how much some may wish them to be otherwise, and the danger of not counting the cost and establishing the Lord in your heart is that when the road gets hard, and it will at some point, you will begin to grumble, resist, and grow bitter in your heart because it’s not what you envisioned your faith journey to be.

I’ve been told all my life that I’m a priest, a king, one who will rule the nations with a rod of iron, who will speak things into existence, bind up and loose at will, and here I am trying to find the coupon for a free gallon of milk. Either there was some miscommunication or a serious case of false advertising. This isn’t what I signed up for!

What the Temu version of Christianity gets you is disillusionment, disappointment, and bitterness. You’re promised one thing and end up with something that looks like the genuine article at first glance, but upon closer inspection, you realize it’s nowhere close to it. On the surface, it seems like Christianity, but soon enough, you can’t help but notice there is no power, no presence of God, no conviction, no hunger, just well-rehearsed sideshows that leave you hollow inside.

This is why it’s important not to sugarcoat the gospel or the cost of being a follower of Christ from the start. This is what it is; this is what it will cost; now, you must make the choice of whether or not you will embark upon the journey. Anything less than the truth is disingenuous and will lead to recrimination sooner or later because the individual was presented Jesus as being the fix-all for all their problems rather than the One to whom they must submit and who they must obey for the rest of their time here on earth.

When you go to apply for a job, there is a discussion of both compensation as well as expectations, a detailed job description, and certain non-negotiables required of you. The same applies to our walk of faith. Repentance, regeneration, sanctification, and faithfulness are non-negotiables, as is being born again, transformed, and renewed. This isn’t me being a curmudgeon or a stick in the mud; the Word of God says you must be born again. I’m just passing the message along.

What if Job had been a proponent of the prosperity gospel? What would have happened to his faith, integrity, perseverance, and endurance? While he was rich, lacked nothing, and had everything a man could wish for, it would have worked swimmingly, but what about after? How would he have reacted if his conviction was that God’s primary purpose was to bless and prosper him, always? Would his faith have endured? Would he have clung to his integrity still?

What you believe regarding the nature of the God you serve matters, and what matters most of all is that what you believe about God aligns with His word. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.