dar334

Morning coffee at the kitchen table, a new year and a chronological order reading plan to get through the Bible in a year, with the humming of the refrigerator as my background noise, another day begins.

My quiet time in study every day has been a literal mind saver by getting lost for a few minutes each day with God. This morning the plan had me read Job 6-9. The Book of Job falls in the middle of Genesis chronologically  and I smiled through a tear as I read and thought of a dear friend. A friend who has been an inspiration to me.

I have asked the question myself, and have heard many others ask, “Why does God allow bad things to happen?” The Book of Job is a prime example of bad things happening to good people. I have heard some understandable, or somewhat acceptable answers to that question, and have read several accounts of bad things happening to good people, but I still can’t seem to be able to pass the answer to that question on to someone else without stuttering and stammering. The study note for 1:1-2:13 stopped my eyes from moving slowly forward and caused them to back up and reread, then ponder this:

Sin has twisted justice and made our world unpredictable and ugly.

When I told my dear friend that Jim had been diagnosed with lung cancer, she reached over, patted my leg, and said “This is what God has been preparing you for.” Measuring her faith would be like trying to thread a camel through the eye of a needle.  She swore God put me in her life to help her get through the loss of her husband in 2012 from mesothelioma. During our conversation in the spring of 2016, we then had to ponder that perhaps God had put her in my life to help me get through the roller coaster God had now put me on. Over and over again throughout the last 8 or 9 years that Jim and I have faithfully been pursuing our knowledge and faith, I have often wondered why we were suddenly so “hungry” as a friend calls it, for knowledge.

Before my pondering could conclude, I had to pack up and head out to face whatever the world was going to put in my path today.  Traveling a few miles, waiting a few minutes, then having breakfast with my husband, my thoughts and concerns covered several areas of my life.  Past areas and future areas.  When it was finally time to continue with my study, I found myself in the study note for Job 1:9.

Satan accurately analyzed why many people trust God. They are fair-weather believers, following God only when everything is going well or for what they can get. Adversity destroys this superficial faith. But adversity strengthens real faith by causing believers to dig their roots deeper into God in order to withstand the storms. How deep does your faith go? Put the roots of your faith down deep into God so that you can withstand any storm you may face.

If asked again about why God lets bad things happen, I guess my best response would be “It’s not time to stop it yet.”  Until Jesus returns to end evil once and for all, we will continue to have Satan and his followers causing sin and evil actions to run rampant.  Just cling to the fact that we are not alone in the suffering, and when Jesus returns we will truly have peace for eternity.

I hope I can continue living with this belief, and I know if and when I start to slip, I have my sisters in Christ to reel me back in.

“I’ll celebrate the truth, His work in me ain’t through, I’m just unfinished.”

-dar