I am not Job.
I am not Job. Job was a righteous man whose life fell into catastrophe through no fault of his own. Sometimes I feel like Job, but my life is not nearly as catastrophic as Job’s life; my children are still alive, my livelihood is on the increase not the decrease, and my skin is not covered with boils. Compared to Job’s life, I really have nothing to complain about, but still sometimes I feel overwhelmed by circumstances.I had a good life, or so I thought. I had my dream of staying home to raise my large family. I was happily married for nearly 17 years. Throughout my marriage I could not imagine life without my husband. In fact on many occasions I had told him I wished he would spend more time home with the family; I told him when he worked long hours that I felt like a single mom, and that I didn’t have the grace to be a single mom. Little did I know…
Life took an unexpected turn one day in June of 2003. A question led to the disclosure I felt was earthshaking, and I asked him to leave. I figured our pastor would set him straight, that I just needed to respond in a way that would cause him to take his sin seriously; he had told me he had been looking at pornography. Something else seemed amiss; I just had this gut feeling there was something else he wasn’t telling me. Little did I know…
The disclosures he made in the week that followed truly did shake my world; circumstances never returned to that happily-ever-after status everyone thought constituted my life. For the next year child protective service workers, detectives, and forensic investigators became an unwelcome addition to our lives.
It immediately became clear he could never come home; our family was shattered no matter what course of action I could choose. The responsibility of keeping the children out of harm’s way was heavy on my consciousness, and I lay awake night after night begging the Lord to take him home. I could see no other God-honoring way things could possibly work out under the circumstances.
My prayers were answered, but not my way, not by the Lord taking him home, but instead by my awakening to the reality that divorce – the unthinkable – would be more God-honoring than for me to continue praying for the demise of my husband. Yet how could I divorce the man I loved? God hates divorce, but it seemed the Lord was not in the mode of solving this for me; I faced the very real probability of the children being placed in foster care if I stayed in the marriage. I felt I was in a no-win situation, a multiple choice test with no right answers.
I faced little opposition due to the gravity of our no-win situation. The church and community were supportive for the most part, but my situation shook the confidence of many who hold a deep-seated belief that if you do the right thing, hardships and difficulties shouldn’t happen, that if you follow the right principles you are almost guaranteed things going well for you.
The thing people don’t realize, or maybe don’t think about, is that a favorable outcome may not be something we enjoy in this lifetime. God isn’t American, nor is He microwave generation. He looks at the big picture, and sometimes He decides to do things very differently than you or I might do them.
For example, if it were up to me, there would be no such thing as free will because if people are free to choose right they are also free to choose wrong. It hurts when someone chooses to do you wrong. Sure, you have the opportunity to then forgive, or to learn to forgive, but people still are hurt, consequences still follow.
Sometimes He lets bad things happen through the fault of another’s choices; for example random acts of violence, domestic violence, sexual abuse, genocide, children starving while food is wasted, car accidents, theft; the list could go on and on. Why doesn’t He intervene and prevent these things from happening? I don’t know, but generally He doesn’t mess with free will; because of free will good stuff happens, bad stuff happens, and ugly stuff happens.
The good we are offered in Rom 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Is not necessarily our immediate good, but is our ultimate good.
Look at the whole chapter for context:
“Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Rom 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Rom 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
Rom 8:4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Rom 8:5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
Rom 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Rom 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Rom 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
Rom 8:10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
Rom 8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Rom 8:12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
Rom 8:13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
Rom 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Rom 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Rom 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
Rom 8:17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
Rom 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Rom 8:20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Rom 8:21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Rom 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Rom 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Rom 8:24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
Rom 8:25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Rom 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Rom 8:27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Rom 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Rom 8:30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
Rom 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Rom 8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Rom 8:33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.
Rom 8:34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
Rom 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom 8:36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
By walking in the Spirit we rise above our circumstances. Paul wasn’t talking to Americans with our microwave mentality; he was talking to people who faced daily threat of martyrdom.
We’re more than conquerors; we, meaning those whose circumstances are as grave as possibly being sawn in two or thrown to the lions, or we, meaning those who see that happen to loved ones. We, meaning those persecuted – not just harassed and annoyed – for the faith. We, meaning those who lost all for the sake of the Gospel. We, meaning those who face adversities that our American comfort-based mindset can’t even imagine. We, meaning those like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who were put in the fiery furnace for their obedience to God, trusting Him without regard to whether or not He would choose to intervene on their behalf.
As an American Christian facing difficult circumstances, surely I see that I am more than a conqueror. Compared to the “all things” faced by the Christians being addressed in the book of Romans, the “all things” I face are practically a cake walk. I don’t have to deal with facing my own martyrdom or the martyrdom of my children. The “all things” that I face, life as I knew it being undone by another’s sin, and daily dealing with the emotional turmoil of children whose innocence was stripped away by another’s choices, are difficult and are cause for much prayer and much drawing closer to God. In that I already see they work together for my ultimate good. I’m praying these “all things” are also working for the ultimate good of my children; it may take more time before I see that, or I might not even see it in this lifetime. But I do see a glimmer of good coming of it from time to time.
In driving me to my knees before our loving God the “all things” circumstances that I did not choose for my family nor would I wish upon anyone, even these circumstances are among the “all things” that “work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” At the very least I have a closer walk with God and more spiritual depth than I would have if my life were still going the way I would have planned it.
I love God, I am called, and yes all things including adversities things work together for my ultimate good. I pray that these things also work together for the ultimate good of my children; I believe my children are called and I pray that they learn to also love and trust Him, no matter what circumstances bring. The catastrophes in Job’s life must have also worked together for Job’s ultimate good, even as devastating as Job’s circumstances were. I pray my children learn to love and trust Him whether circumstances are favorable or adverse.
I am not Job. Sometimes I feel like Job, but my children are still alive, my livelihood is on the increase not the decrease, and my skin is not covered with boils. Compared to Job’s life, I really have nothing to complain about. Do you?
posted by Mary Ann | 8:57 PM
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