Dealing with Difficulty ... and other writings. (Page 2)

Dealing with Difficulties

Have you ever wondered how life can put such a hurtin’ on you – when you least expect it? Job was a man who had the world on a string, and people throughout the land in which he lived knew Job; if not personally, certainly by reputation. He was the richest man in all the east, and when people wanted words of wisdom Job was one to whom they could turn.

One day God and Lucifer had an encounter in which Hell’s bad boy told God, “he had been walking to and fro across the earth seeking those he might devour.” When God asked, “Have you considered my servant Job?” Satan accused God of “putting a hedge around Job,” thus disallowing the Prince of Darkness access to him. “Let me at him, and I will have him cursing You to Your face! Every man has his price ... Job doesn’t serve You for nothing!”

That was quite a challenge, but God is always up to the challenge, so he removed the hedge, opened the gate, and let Satan take his best shots. Satan used every militaristic strategy in his arsenal, but to no avail. Even Job’s wife ran low on patience, asking her beaten and scarred husband, “Do you still maintain your integrity? Why don’t you just curse God – and DIE?”

Job’s friends came calling, and they had a book of reasons 'committed to memory' as to why Job was suffering. With friends like Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, a kind-hearted enemy might be a welcome sight! They no doubt 'meant well, but their ‘distress-side’ manor was lacking.

Job’s health in shambles, his ten children dead, his wealth gone, his friends talking nonsense, and his wife suggesting he “curse God and die” ... well, who would expect a man to endure such torture? Only God, perhaps, but God knew Job! And when Job finally said, “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that, in my flesh I shall see God,” he was well on his way to immortality.

When He took a sword of faith and shook it in the face of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and shouted with what strength he had left, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him,” there was nothing Satan and his minions could say.

God knows I am not Job. Were God to name someone today who was like Job, He wouldn’t name me. Still, God has allowed me to go through cancer, in 1975, and to join the millions who have Parkinson’s Disease. The question arises, ‘How do I cope?’ When the shakes refuse to allow me to type, eat, hold a glass of ice tea ... (without sounding like a rattle snake in distress,) how does one cope?

According to Job, the “foolish” think of “cursing God.” The wise on the other hand, ask: “Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and not evil?” God sends his rain on the just, and the unjust. While “His mercy endures to all generations,” he also “reproves, rebukes, and chastens;” and, “those who are without chastisement are bastards, (illegitimate), and not sons of God.”