The Job of Job

The what of what? This post has been speaking to me over the last few days, but I couldn’t find the words until this morning.

Recently my sweet mother in law said that she just knows that there is something more to the suffering she and our family have endured. Before I came along she had buried her own son, her first grandchild along many of her brothers. She endured other things that are not mine to share.

We talked about how some seem to float along life without the huge waves of grief swallowing them. How some seem to not struggle and juggle hardships the way others do.

I have always told myself that those like myself that have been ‘through it’ need those who haven’t to look to for strength. Like coming from addiction and pairing up a friendship with someone who has never even smoked a cigarette. How does that even work? I think those who have never done those things are an inspiration to those of us who have for the hope of our children’s futures. I can point that person out of a crowd, bend down to my child and say, “See him? He never once drank alcohol, never once smoked a cigarette. Isn’t that great?”

But what about those who suffer for no reason? No self-inflicted wounds. Just hardship. Why?

Think if the many men in the Bible. Think of Moses and his staff. His courage and leadership. Yes, he was scared at first, but he ended up being used greatly. David and his mighty men. David was brave from the beginning. Sure he was small and ruddy, but David did great things, so much so, that almost all of the Psalms are about him. Peter, Paul, Abraham, and all the others that pop into your mind…..But what about Job? What was his job (place) in the big scheme of things?

Job was living a good life, trusting in the Lord, doing what he was supposed to. Just like that, his life was stripped down to nothingness. All he knew and lived and cared for was wiped away in a day! That all happened in the first chapter of the book! The rest of the book of Job explains his thoughts and conversations with those around him that were prodding him to give up and die. At the end he gets back what he lost, but like my devotional pointed out today…he didn’t get back the sons and daughters he lost, just new ones. He would surely grieve those children who died the day he lost it all. It wasn’t the happy ending many would like to think because those individual children were living breathing people he could no longer hug and commune with. That feeling of loss would be with Job for the rest of his life no matter how many more children he would have.

Sorry to be such a downer, but the question remains, what was Job’s job in the Bible? I think it was for those of us that don’t get to skate through life without pitfalls at every turn. His story of loss reminds us to simply love God, even when it doesn’t feel like God is anywhere to be found. His job was to show us that God doesn’t kill, steal, and destroy as many would like to believe.

Maybe Job was the greatest of the men in Bible. Think about it. Moses was tongue tied, smote the rock when he should have talked to it, and didn’t get to see the promise land. Abraham didn’t wait on God’s promise and listened to the bad advice of wife and got Hagar pregnant. David wanted another man’s wife, in so much, that he had that man sent to the front lines of battle. Peter denied Jesus three times, even after being told by Jesus that he would do so.

Wonderful men of Bible, yes. They had their place, their jobs to do so we could look back on their success and failures and learn. But with Job, I think his story, his job, was to teach us that in hard times we shouldn’t mope around blaming God, we should worship and believe our way out of those times. And when we do….our job will be a living story, inspiration for the next generations that are watching us. Because I am sure our children and their children are watching how we Jobs make it out of hardships.

Image found on internet

Thank you for praying for husband. His results came back positive for cancer. The outcome looks very positive. Pray it has not spread and that we can be like during this time and be an inspiration to our kids.

Question for ya,

For all you avid readers on here. My middle daughter will be doing 7th grade work, but ninth grade math as she’s a smarty pants with math. I am not buying a language book for her this year. I am having her write daily, picking fron the 4 forms of writing and a phrase/word prompt along with it. She will also read appropriate books at her leisure but I wanna put in sone classics as well.

Any book suggestions in the 7th-8th grade range?

Also any writing prompt ideas, because I’m going to run out of them quick!

Thanks y’all. Thanks for prayers. My husband is feeling well. I will update you after his next appointment. Pray no cancer was texted please.

For all you that want to know more about the 4 styles of writing, I copied and pasted this, with the author of this article at the bottom

Persuasive:  For this writing style, the writer is trying to convince the reader of the validity of a certain position or argument. Persuasive writing includes the writers’ opinions, and provides justifications and evidence to support their claims.

Examples: Letters of recommendation; cover letters; Op-Eds and Editorial newspaper articles; argumentative essays for academic papers

Narrative:  Often seen in longer writing samples, the purpose of this writing style is to share information in the context of a story. Narratives should include characters, conflicts, and settings.

Examples: Short stories; novels; poetry; historical accounts 

Expository: This type of writing is used to explain a concept and share information to a broader audience. Expository writing provides evidence, statistics, or results and focuses on the facts of a certain topic. This type is not meant to express opinions.

Examples: How-to articles; textbooks; news stories (not editorials or Op-Eds); business, technical, or scientific writing

Descriptive: This type of writing is used to depict imagery to create a clear picture in the mind of the reader. This method helps the readers become more connected to the writing by appealing to their senses. Descriptive writing employs literary techniques such as similes, metaphors, allegory, etc to engage the audience.

Examples: Poetry; fictional novels or plays; memoirs or first-hand accounts of events

*This post was adapted from “Types of Writing Styles” by Robin Jeffrey.

Blog post prepared by Danielle Perry, GWC tutor. Published January 27, 2020.

On the Other Side

Pain. Seems like the word of the day every day in our home.  Even when you take away the cancer stuff, we seem to discuss pain in some part of our bodies around here.  I’m not writing this to say I want to focus on that, but what the thoughts do to a person.

I spend a good amount of brain energy trying to see beyond the pain.  My mind time-travels to the future, wondering if in three weeks if I will be dealing with the same pain or will it be a different pain?

I saw a meme today that said,

Image found on the internet

Well isn’t that the truth of it?

Seems like for some of us ambitious people, we are always trying to get on the other side of things.  If only I could through college, then my life will truly start.  If only I could have this baby, then I won’t feel so miserable.  If only my husband could get a better job. Then we could caught up on bills.

It always is this way somehow for me.  Stressing and worryin’ about what’s next coming down the pipe. 

I have been learning about this whole, living in the moment thing. Approaching 50 makes me question how much time will I be given.  If I make it as far as my mom did, I have 18 years. Morbid and a bit depressing? Yes, truly.  But I’m sure we have all been in this mind-frame a time or two.

Back to living in the moment, I have been purposely trying to do it. Coming from someone who’s anxious about the future, and not really depressed about the past anymore (Praise God!)… I can tell you it is very hard to live in the present if that hasn’t been your set, due course from the get-go.

I have, indeed, had moments of living in the present. They are very nice, calming, and comforting!

Join me in stepping into a conscious decision to live in the here and now. For there is one thing that is for certain in any tense; we can only be sure of the now not what’s ahead.

Have you ever tried to be aware of your mood, and tried to steer it in the direction you want it to go? It is possible. And of course with God, all things are possible.

Following the Crowd

Yesterday my husband had surgery.  He came through just fine.  His pain seems tolerable. The next few days could be different as the numbing trauma wears off and his body is faced with the reality of what has been done.

Something odd happened to me that I want to share.  When they came to take him out of the room, I was able to go down to the cafeteria and get something to eat.  This is not a hospital I am familiar with, so I did what I was told.  Go straight down this hall, around the elevators, and the cafeteria and vending machines will be on the left. Praise God, because I was hungry but didn’t want to eat in front of my husband. He was starved from fasting for the surgery.

So, I took the hall straight while they wheeled him off to the right, to the operating room. I wanted to cry. I wanted to wallow and meltdown right then and there. I didn’t, but the urge was strong in me. I guess this is what they call swallowing back tears.

I got to the cafeteria but it was closed. There were the tell-tale gates blocking me fron entering. Next to it was a small room with vending machines in it. While choosing my second item, a bag of cookies to wash down my multi-grain chips, the door to the room I was in closed all on it’s own. It did not slam but just ever so slightly close. The PA came on as a recorded woman said, “Fire alarm in the MRI” that’s what I heard. And small white flashing lights blinking close to the ceiling.

The other way out of this room led to the closed cafeteria. I started that way. I saw doors leading to the outside in the cafeteria. I walked toward them, but did not go out of them. My next thought was my husband is in surgery and there’s a fire in the building somewhere by the MRI. What do I do?

I went to the door that automatically closed on it’s own thinking it was locked but it wasn’t. I opened it and in the hallway were staff members walking all in one direction but no one was in a hurry. Most had masks on and I couldn’t see their faves but I knew they weren’t in a hurry by their body actions. “What’s going on?” I asked. They said to come with them. So I filed in with my wallet, my chips, and my phone in hand.

One of them said, “We don’t know if it is a drill or an actual fire.” We were walking through the corridor to the stairs. We started to climb the stairs! We climbed three floors. Being overwhelmed by the day of my husband having cancer removed and not knowing how to be there for him, I went up the stairs! When we got to the top there was a group of workers surrounding a man with a fire extinguisher and they looked at me and said, “It was a drill. Do you know how to get back where you were?” Overwhelmed and taken back I just looked at them all. The two nice women walked me.back down the stairs.

Then it hit me, the alarm and the voice on the PA was saying, “Fire alarm return to MRI” had I heard correctly I may have figured it out. Seems to me the crowd would have known. But in the end, safety and the not knowing for sure compels you to react as if it were real.

I couldn’t clearly hear that voice, and because I couldn’t, I went with the crowd in the opposite direction that I should have!

When we are not lining up with God in our daily prayers, we cannot hear His voice. That can cause us to line ourselves up with the path of least resistance causing us to walk into danger rather than running away from it with all of our hearts.

I think I will always remember the moment I started to climb those stairs so blindly. It will be a learning moment that my brain will process to use for the next time…

Thank you to you that have been praying for him. The doctor told us, if you had to get cancer, this is the one you would want to get. He said it is completely curable and that he may have been cured just with the surgical removal yesterday. So we wait and see what pathology says on the tumor. If for sure cancer, he then has blood work and scans to see if it has spread.…In the meantime, we stayed prayed up!

Paper Boats

Brother Bruce, I think this is a great way of explaining things. I for one was one who had a heart change. The first paragraph after ‘fast forward to today’ says enough for me. Enjoy…

I don’t know if this post will help anyone or not. I don’t even know if I am on target, but what follows is how I see and understand what I see happening as of late, with regard to the abortion issue. Hopefully it will help someone. Bruce’s Parable of the Paper Boats There was […]

Paper Boats

Can You Relate?

How many times do you think I have typed the words, ‘There is healing in writing’? I sit and think. Ruminate, churn feelings, and thoughts around in this brain of mine until my ears ring. Sometimes I find myself in this rolling conversation with God, where it isn’t even pleading anymore. I’m like a child begging to go outside when I’ve already been told no. Let me backtrack…

Just over a week ago, the Dr’s found a tumor in my husband’s testicle. The first day or so, he was shy to say anything to anyone, being that it was where it was. He concluded that women deal with breast cancer, why can’t a man be open about his testicle? I admire him for coming to that decision. He did not allow the pride of this life to get in his way of what he needed to become comfortable with his situation.

This was a Friday. All we knew was the word tumor. By Wednesday, tumor turned into 5cm with a 95% chance it is cancer. By this coming Wednesday the tumor, along with his testicle, will be removed. Then we go to the next step, whatever that may be. He is handling it well. He knows that testicular cancer has a 98% curable rate. This is comforting. He has decided to make jokes about it. How does one do that? It is beyond me… But I fake it and laugh.

Fear…

Goodness, I just wrote about fear being a friend in times when we need to run the other way. Read it here I concluded how fear can cause us to make the right decisions….then this. Then I’m back to shakin in my boots. Fear, now you’re a foe! You gotta read the other post to know what that even means.

Please God, do a miracle. Please God…more ruminating

Have you ever had a conversation with God where you are rationalizing with Him? As if He is human and needs reminded and persuaded by you?

My middle daughter, 12 years old, just came back from a week of camp. She went off to camp knowing tumor, but nothing else. In the wee hours of the night last night we sat up talking about all the wonderful things she experienced at camp. She says to me, “On Wednesday, I told a few of my friends that my dad might have cancer. We decided to go in the sanctuary and pray for him. We prayed for an hour.” With tears in her eyes and her voiced choking up she says, “When we got done, I felt a peace about it.” Her face showed a peace too in that moment. More talk of it today and she says to me, “It’s going to be fine.” With that same peace and resolve on her face. She has shown a maturity and a faith that we all should strive for.

This is exactly what Jesus was saying in this verse:

If You Know Me…

Then you know today is a wonderful day to shout, Amen!…Roe vs Wade needs to go in Jesus Name! One more victory.

Don’t forget, God used the rainbow as a symbol before any man did!

Presumption

Check out what my friend Bruce has to say today…you won’t regret it.

John 19:10-11 NASB“So Pilate said to Him, “Are you not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?”Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over Me at all, if it had not been given to you from above; for this reason […]

Presumption

Fear….Friend or Foe?

I’ve been thinking on fear lately, but more so it’s ability to drive a person in a direction that they may not usually take.

Covid’s aftermath is clear to us all. We all have our stories we could share. How criminal we felt when gathering eleven people in our homes, instead of the recommended ten. How we all, at some point, googled covid and it’s symptoms. The fear that passed through our minds for ourselves and for our loved ones. As the pandemic became a way of life for some, it became a constant reminder of fear to others. I have watched as fear of getting covid has kept people in their homes isolated. I have also watched as others got tired of being on watch and got on with their lives.

Fear has an ability to freeze a person dead in their tracks. Their brains shut down and they simply cannot move. On the contrary, fear can cause a person to run for their lives and harness a strength that is almost superhuman.

Fear can disable us in these scenarios and many others. But can fear be a friend? Can fear ever help us to overcome something? I say it can to a certain extent. It can be a motivator.

I had a pain in my lower back one week ago today. A pain that caused me to cry out in tears. Spasm was the culprit. As I laid in my bed not moving a muscle, a fear came over me. Many thoughts hit my brain and set it into overdrive. What is it? How can I stop it? Dear God, stop the pain! It was over in about 15 minutes. Then poof it was gone. I was left with a soreness and stiffness that I had become used to over the months.

Over the next week, fear of that pain returning caused me to finally stop my life and rest. This is hard for me to do, because I am driven most days. But after that pain, I forced myself, out of fear, to chill. It was hard to do but beneficial to my healing.

I am happy I had that fear of the pain. It’s what is helping me heal. I read an article on healing that was published extra into my Bible. It read that God heals some and some He does not. We, of course, must have faith in order for Him to work the miraculous. Remember, Jesus went back to his own land but did not so many works because of their lack of faith? Their unbelief. While God is choosing His verdict on whether we are healed or not, I think He wants to see us make an effort. The article said that maybe God doesn’t choose to heal us at times because there is a lesson to be learned in the pain or in the healing.

Of course God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love and of a sound mind. I know that, I do. I just wonder how many times we could take a fear in our lives and use to better strengthen us rather than rebuking it and looking down one another or ourselves for feeling fear. While fear is a foe in most cases… I think we can make it friend by using it to better ourselves.

Image found on the internet

Fixated on Fixing

Do you find that in your lowest moments of life is where you find your inspiration to write? If you’re not a writer, do you find in your trials is when you gather a strength you didn’t know you had? In these times, do you find your faith grow?

I am a fixer. I have always been a fixer. My dearly departed friend used to remind me of this often. Although it would make me so irritated when she seemed to insult me with her words; what I wouldn’t give to hear her say them today. Back then I thought it was noble of me to be a fixer. To see other’s needs and try to find answers. Now I see how exhausting it can be. I guess she knew a thing or two. Maybe in this case, it took one to know one.

When faced with a medical problem, do you fixate on it? Do you try to find the origin of the issue. Like when the pain all began. Do you, like me, search for logical, easy answers to solve your medical issue so you can get on with life?

Maybe it’s your marriage. Do you go through the reel of memories to find the moment it all went wrong? Ask others for advice or read all the latest books on how to save your marriage.

Have you ever been in a financial fix and have no clue where the money will come from? Unemployment agencies returning your calls, while you are digging through your things to throw a garage sale to save your behind. All the while you are scrambling to find the answer to fix the issue.

I am this person. No, my marriage is not falling apart. The finances are in the black as well. My health could be worse. I’m dealing with some back pain along with menopausal stuff. No matter what it is, though, I am a fixer. Always have been.

Are you, or do you know those type of people with tremendous faith? The type that do not complain and voice their worries, but rather you hear them say God will handle it, no problem. Just how do they do it? This is a rhetorical question I am asking, for I know it is faith and years of giving it to God that brings them to this place of certainty.

But seriously, how do they do it? While God is always with me, on my mind, and in my heart daily, I still try to find my way through my problems without Him.

Sure wish I was to that point of tremendous faith in my life. The need to fix others has left me for the most part. I used to find myself often in conversation wracking my brain for an answer to a problem that is not mine. This is freeing because it is one thing to have compassion on a friend and pray for them, but it’s quite another to think you have answers to their problems. But the need to fix my problems is still very present. It’s the mere definition of insanity. I think I can fix me so I try. I never do fix me. Same thing, same result.  It is always God who does the fixing.  In His gentle reminding. In His way of bringing those who love you around to help you. Whether it be because you cannot bend to pick something up so they help you. He brings a check in the mail or a rich uncle dying leaving you just enough money to get out of that hole.

We often think, while we are in our fixing, that we have seen all possible outcomes of a situation until our God steps up. He has a way of of making His will clear.  We jist need to sit back and let Him do His thing.

Image found in the internet