Tuesday,
February 16, 2021
Here’s how the conversation went the other day with my
friend:
Me: This pandemic thing is getting old! Him:
It does get old, doesn’t it?
I didn’t
ask permission from my friend to quote us…because this is what we call “public
domain” – nobody has a copyright on those words. If you read them today you could just as well
have written them yesterday; you’ve had that conversation sometime within the
last year.
And
here’s another conversation you’ve had (although the so-called conversation
had no other participants than you and the words echoing around in your mind
and soul):
Me: This
pandemic thing is scary.
Me: I
wonder if this year will be the date they’ll put on my tombstone?
Me: I don’t
want to think about this.
And
yet, think about this is what we do. Years ago a co-worker of mine said: Everyone over the age of 40 thinks
about death at least once a day.
But that statistical analysis wasn’t opined during a pandemic, where the
news channels have that death box on the screen during their
broadcasts. With half a million deaths
in this country (so far), I’m thinking the newscast audience pool is shrinking! Who wants to watch death winning?
Enter the
words of Job, from (at least) 3,500 years ago.
Job was a rich man, and a godly man.
He was also one of the most unfortunate men in history. He had it all, wealth, health, family,
community respect, and a life of integrity.
And then, in a single afternoon, Job lost it all, except for his integrity
and faith in God. His family died in a
tragic disaster, his wealth robbed, friends suspecting he’d sinned bigtime, and
his wife urging him to commit suicide.
But Job hung-on!
“Oh, that my words could be recorded. Oh, that they could be inscribed on a monument, carved with an iron chisel and filled with lead, engraved forever in the rock. “But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and 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! Job 19:23-27
From
our perspective (on this side of the cross), we know Job did more than hang-on,
he prevailed. Reading the end of Job’s epic
we see that his integrity and faith in God were vindicated, and the last days
of his life were more prosperous and redemptive than before.
That’s
not just a heartwarming end to a tragic story, that is a textbook track for we
humans to live on, especially now in a worldwide health crisis. With as much as pulls at us to “curse God and
die” (as Mrs. Job so eloquently preached to her hubby), there is every evidence
and urging in Scripture to have faith in God. No matter what it looks like on the newscast
screen, God is behind that screen, and HE will have the
last word.
For You Today
A dear friend sent me some encouraging words a day ago,
words from an old song in his church’s hymnal entitled If You But Trust
in God to Guide You. Written
nearly four centuries ago during the time of the 30 Years War by Georg
Neumark, a man, not unlike Job, who was fired, robbed, and regained all, only
to lose everything in a fire[1], I think these words fit the bill for peace in the
pandemic:
If you
but trust in God to guide you
and place your confidence in him,
you'll find him always there beside you
to give you hope and strength within;
for those who trust God's changeless love
build on the rock that will not move.[2]
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky
Road; have a blessed day!
[1] Title Image: Russell Brownworth, own work (from a live broadcast of CNN 2/15/21 Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
[2] Georg Neumark 17th century (Source: Hymnary.org)
