REDUCED TO THE INTEGRITY OF OUR FAITH

Job 16:1-19:29; 1 Corinthians 16:1-24; Psalm 40:1-10; Proverbs 22:1

“But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he will stand upon the earth at last. And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God! I will see him for myself. Yes, I will see him with my own eyes. I am overwhelmed at the thought! How dare you go on persecuting me, saying, ‘It’s his own fault’? You should fear punishment yourselves, for your attitude deserves punishment. Then you will know that there is indeed a judgment.”

“Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong. And do everything with love.”

I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what he has done and be amazed. They will put their trust in the Lord. But as I stood there in silence—not even speaking of good things—the turmoil within me grew worse.”

“Choose a good reputation over great riches; being held in high esteem is better than silver or gold.”

Life holds far more questions than answers. No matter how we may wish or rationalize it to be otherwise, odds are that each of us will come to the time, place or circumstance in our lives where nothing makes sense. I won’t belabor the point, because I only say that to say this. The time to install a smoke alarm is not after the house burns down. Nor did God intend that we wait until we experience a life crisis to establish a relationship with his Son. When life throws us for a loop, it really helps to be prepared for a soft landing. No one can completely avoid the slings and arrows of the Prince of this world, and we delude ourselves to think otherwise. But we can be better prepared to withstand Satan’s hits if we make a habit instead of a happening out of our time with our true King.

I’ll admit it. When things are going well, I’m as likely as anyone else – and perhaps more so than most – to give myself the credit, or just take things for granted. Nothing motivates a spiritual revival like a little adversity. The Holy Spirit, however, never intended us to live our lives in the uncertainty of constant crisis management. We can never achieve real peace in our lives as long as we are just waiting for the other shoe to drop. We cannot feel completely safe as long as the majority of our faith and security rests in our jobs and other people. We will never experience true sanctuary unless we stop running from place to place trying to hold on to our sense of personal significance. At some point, it all boils down to this: those who live life successfully are those who know what it means to rest in Jesus and who actually take the time needed to do it on a consistent basis.

No where is this more evident currently than in my profession of law. There are more attorneys out of work right now than there have ever been. Ever. That’s a long time, and it’s sad enough on its own. What is truly tragic, though, is the fact that most of us don’t know what to do with ourselves when we are not awash in the adrenalin rush of doing deals, trials and the like. For the first time in their lives, many attorneys are feeling unneeded, discarded and insignificant, mostly due to circumstances completely beyond their control. They did nothing wrong. The choices they made for their life’s work seemed reasonable at the time. Who knew the profession would turn up so wounded years after they committed themselves to it? Sure, as in any profession, a number of us don’t deserve as good as we’ve got, and others deserve far worse. But for the vast majority of scared and uncertain souls in our ranks, none of this was their fault. They stood by like the rest of the world, appalled at the destruction the immorality of a relative few could wreck on the innocent. Still, they also suffer the indignity of recent statements like Jay Leno’s, “Never have more attorneys been out of work…. At least something good has come out of this recession.” When the entire world seems to be against you, where do you turn?

Job knew the answer: “I know that my Redeemer lives….” How could he know in that moment of his deepest grief? Abandoned by God, mocked by his friends and dismissed by his wife, how could Job possibly have kept his sense of divine presence, much less his hope for the future? Throughout his entire story, there aren’t many clues. There’s no sign of God’s involvement with him during his crises, until their final dialogue. The Holy Spirit did not wrap Job in comfort when he lost his fortune. Christ sent no angels to tend him when his children died. I can only guess at what kept him professing his confidence in a Redeemer at the point we find him today, but it’s a pretty good guess. I think Job was able to maintain hope in the bad times because he routinely experienced deep spiritual communion with his God, particularly during the good times when he did not appear to “need” it.  As betrayed and hurt by his Creator as Job came to feel, he continued to insist on his relationship with God, and on his right to confront the Spirit as one of His children. I do not understand why the Lord allowed Job to suffer as long as he did, or why He did not at least come to Job with words of comfort at some point, but then I’m not God, and I do not know His ways. All I do know is that Job never disavowed God. He never questioned, much less denied, His existence. I believe the only reason he did not do so was because, when unspeakable tragedy struck, Job already had so much experience of and with God that it was simply impossible for him to give up his faith.

Life does hold more questions than answers. There are more things we just don’t know than we’d ever admit in public or even to ourselves. But when adversity strips us down to the point where all we have is the integrity of our faith, my personal prayer is that I will find the best answer I can under the circumstances: I never want to forget that I, too, know that my Redeemer lives!