I would have liked to remain at the beach. I knew coming home would be jarring...and it was. A whole host of struggles awaited me.
I thought of Job, and his lovely wife. Poor Job was the brunt of Satan's attacks in an effort to make him recant his faith. Job lost family, livelihood, reputation, financial security, and his health. As each new disaster hit, his "friends" accused him of being punished by God for hidden sin. Nice friends, huh? But perhaps the worst influence on the suffering Job was his wife.
Her advice in the face of adversity: Curse God and die.
Job responds as I pray I will always respond. He is my hero. He suffered, and he struggled to trust God in the midst of so much despair, but he remained faithful. He said: "Shall we accept good from God and not accept adversity?"
If this life is all there is, Job's wife made more sense. Job had lost everything of value to him. (Interestingly, Satan didn't bother to take Job's wife away...gives you some food for thought...) But Job had an eternal perspective. He did not want to suffer any more than any of us do. But he trusted that the suffering was as much God's right to bestow as the blessings Job had received at God's hand.
And He knew God was good, thus there was a reason for Job's suffering too complex for him to understand. Rather than seeking to understand, he rested in the knowledge that God was in control, and God loved him. Come what may, he would cling to God.
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Psalm 73:25 Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth.
Job 2: 9-10 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!” But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
Clinging.
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