Job CCXCIV

 I respect those who struggle, who persist, who endure, who get knocked down only to get up again, shake the dust off, and keep pressing on. It takes grit, determination, and a clearly defined purpose to brave the headwinds, to keep pushing forward when everything seems to be resisting you, and when you know full well that abandoning course would be the easy thing to do. The expectation of living life on easy mode once we encounter God and having no less than the best of everything until we breathe our last, is neither biblical nor is it the environment in which true spiritual growth can occur.

Fire refines and burns away the dross. Pressure turns pieces of coal into diamonds. Resistance forces the body to adapt and grow stronger. All of these require some type of discomfort, unease, and opposition to facilitate the becoming of something superior to what was.

Faith is tested that it might be proven. Warriors engage in battle so that they might earn the name to which they aspire. When the avoidance of battle becomes the end goal rather than victory, whatever claims one might have made regarding being a warrior fly out the window and are proven to be hyperbole.

We are neither sellswords nor mercenaries. We do not offer our fealty to the highest bidder, nor do we abandon our principles the moment they begin to cost us something. We stand on truth because truth abides, and when everything else is stripped away, truth remains.

It’s not so much that past generations were built differently. Since the dawn of creation, from generation to generation, men have shared the same traits, attributes, sensibilities, virtues, and shortcomings. What has changed, especially with this last generation, is our willingness to justify cowardice, double-mindedness, hypocrisy, and indifference, and to convince ourselves that our time would be better spent watching the surf than engaging in battle.

Even in the deplorable state everything finds itself in, many are reticent to step up, be active, and defend the truth of the gospel unashamedly and unapologetically. We submit, we cower, we compromise, not because it’s the right thing to do, but because it’s what will require the least amount of effort on our part.       

Situationally moral, self-serving, unregenerate men have convinced an entire generation to cease resisting the wiles of the enemy, to give up, surrender, throw in the towel, and allow themselves to be carried away by the tempest. Why swim against the current when the current can do all the work for you? Because the current you’re allowing to take you where it wills will inevitably lead to the rapids, and beyond them, the lethal plunge to the rocks below.  

The Word tells us that God is a present help in time of trouble. It tells us that He will make a way even when, to the eyes of men, there seems to be no way. In some respects, this life is a war of attrition. Everything seems to be trying to wear us down, gradually, incrementally, and for many, each new day is a battle they must wage, not having recovered from the exhaustion of the previous one. The only way to continue forward, undeterred, and undaunted is to know what we’re fighting for, and recognize that each new day brings us that much closer to the finish line, to Jesus, and the prize to which we aspire, and for which we run this race.

Job 31:13-15, “If I have despised the cause of my male or female servant when they complained against me, what then shall I do when God rises up? When He punishes, how shall I answer Him? Did not He who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same One fashion us in the womb?”

Long before Christ’s sermon on the mount, Job encapsulated the idea of doing unto others as you would have them do to you by acknowledging that, whether master or servant, prince or pauper, the same God fashioned each and every one of us in the womb. No man is born better than another, more noble than another, more virtuous than another, and the same God who made the beggar in the womb made the prince in the same manner.

It is man who assigns titles, looks to pedigree, places people in castes, and, by their hierarchical view of society, assigns more value to one group than the other. Job viewed the whole of mankind as having been created equal, regardless of their station or their nationality, and treated those who served him with kindness and compassion.

There isn’t much that gets under my skin anymore. The years have mellowed me to the point that even when offense is intended, I take no offense, because life’s too short, and I’d rather smile than frown. It is said it’s better for the soul. The one thing that still rankles me, even after all this time, is when I see someone disrespect or outright verbally abuse another person because they think themselves entitled to do so or perceive the person as being beneath them. It’s something I can’t abide.

When we first came to America, my wife worked as a waitress for a little while. During that time, I heard enough stories of people being unkind, entitled, rude, and unreasonable to fill an encyclopedia, and looking back, I think it’s why I have such strong emotions when I see someone berating a cashier, a server, or the guy earning eight bucks an hour trying to keep up with coffee orders during morning rush.

A kind word, a smile, a thank-you, and “have a good day” don’t cost you anything, but they may well be invaluable to the person in that moment. Our being a peculiar people, set apart and altogether different from those of the world, must extend beyond the fish sticker on our car or the WWJD bracelet, to the character we exhibit, the kindness we show others, and the way we interact with those around us. Job was just such a man, one who was transformed for the better through his relationship with God, and it showed in every area of his life.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.