I am always amazed at how God leads me in what I read.  This weekend I began to read Glorious Ruin by Tullian Tchividjian  not knowing that the book was based on Job! So here is my highlighted portion from my weekend reading. I hope it will reinforce what you are reading in Scripture.

          “Nothing is as it should be: disease, tsunamis, hurricanes, perverts, greed, earthquakes and yes, the day when nothing seems to go your way. There is an intense realism in the biblical portrait of life. Pain and suffering do not surprise God; we do not need to deny them.

          The appropriate response to life in this world IS grief and pain. In fact, nowhere in the Bible do we find God sanctioning a “suck it up and deal with it” posture towards pain. Consider the life of Job again. He had everything going for him. He had land, wealth, a successful business, a women at his side, and ten great kids. Job lived the good life. Then the nightmare struck. After being told that all of his ten children had died, Job’s response was not a temperate one (see Job 1:20-22).

          Note that God did not condemn Job’s emotional outburst! It’s not as if God saw Job’s anquish and said, “Come on, Job! Get ahold of yourself and toughen up, man, seriously? Don’t you know that I’m God and all of this has been done for a reason? And it’s a darn good reason too, so just quit with the whining!”

          Instead, what does the Bible say?
“In all this, Job did not sin.”

          Job’s unraveling wasn’t wrong or sinful; rather, it was emotionally realistic.”
Glorious Ruin, Page 55

         Today are you just trying to hold it all together? Are you wearing your “All is well” mask? No one is exempt from pain and troubles. 

          Well, my mask just fell off. I had stopped writing as I was needing to get to a meeting.  Just before I left my office I got a phone call with some news which added to my already down mood because of some news received over the weekend. I kept my mask on for the meeting but shortly after I had a meltdown.  As I re-read what I previously wrote, I am praying about and being reminded not to sin in the midst of this and to know that my emotional reality is understood by my Heavenly Father. A good cry has helped; if nothing else it is out of my system for now. Mostly, I need to know  that God’s grace is here for me, right now, just where I am.

Blessings,
Kathy Withers

Kathy’s on staff at America’s KESWICK in the Development Department. Kathy has been married to her husband Dave for 27 years.  They have two adult children. Kathy is active in her local Church and has taught Sunday School and Bible Studies for women. Her passion is to encourage women to deepen their walk with Jesus Christ by finding and living out the truths of God’s Word.