A Lesson From Job

"And he said...'The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.'" ~Job 1:21c,d

In my struggles to find a full time job, I have had a number of people tell me to read the Book of Job because Job was prone to struggle in his life. What strikes me, though, is that I don't feel like many people want to actually focus on the entirety of Job's situation. Most want to zoom in on the fact that his wealth was restored; not many want to contemplate the complete 180 his life took when Satan decided to mess with him and God allowed it. 

The "prosperity" Gospel seems to have ruined a percentage of modern day Christians. They view Christianity as some sort of get rich quick scheme or the easy way through life. They choose to focus on what they want from the Bible, mainly phrases like, "The Lord gave," as opposed to, "and the Lord has taken away." When things get taken away from us, some feel as if God has turned against them and no longer have faith in His sovereignty. This is definitely not what has happened. The truth of the matter is that God knows what is best for our lives and He removes particular jobs, people, etc., from our lives because they are not beneficial and don't radiate glory for God. Instead of acting like spoiled two year olds, privy to everything that we desire, why not analyze the purpose behind God's decisions and evaluate how to better glorify God? Coupled with this, Christians need to stop assuming that they know everything and accept the fact that God is Supreme and the in charge of not just our lives, but the entire world. Why else would it be written in 1 Corinthians 1:25, "For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men," if not for the fact that God knows and can conquer all?

Aside from my job search, something else that has alluded me in the past year has been my motivation to run. Ever since last May, I've had little desire to get up and out the door to enjoy this blessing. Instead, I've run for like a week and then taken months off at a time. I believe that this is because I need to remember the difficulty of starting to run again in order to sympathize with other beginning runners. Also, I think God wants me to remember that He is the reason I am able to run and I forget that fact when I'm in a routine. Too easily I might believe that I can run because of my own abilities, and not because of the abilities He has granted. 

Recently, though, I have started running again. I know that God is providing the motivation because I have no desire to roll out of bed in the morning and put on my running shoes, but I have anyway. I figure if I'm not completely awake when I get on the road, my body won't totally understand what is happening until I'm too far into the run to turn back. This morning was the first time in a long while that I actually felt my normal stride come back, and I attribute that to God helping me get out of bed today, thanks to my cat. She insists on drinking from the faucet every morning at around 5am, give or take 30 minutes, and I finally determined that taking advantage of the cool weather might be beneficial. I'm so glad I had the opportunity because I got to see a beautiful sunrise and finally enjoy the sport that has been apart of my life for the past 16 years. Though the Lord had originally taken away my motivation, now He has returned it to me.