26 September 2016 - afflicted but not crushed

[ Today's Readings ]

We don't think about it this way, but we do have a temptation to want to be the greatest. It is a subtle preoccupation with status and image. It keeps us from serving the least among us. We don't even notice them because we're too busy thinking about ourselves. Or if we do think about them we don't think we owe them anything.

Preoccupation with ourselves and what we deserve can really hurt us during times of trial. If we feel entitled to blessings we do not respond well when they are taken from us. We can become angry at others or at God for taking what we feel is ours by right. Instead we need to be more like Job.

“Naked I came forth from my mother’s womb,
and naked shall I go back again.
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
blessed be the name of the LORD!”

In all this Job did not sin,
nor did he say anything disrespectful of God.

Job is afflicted but not crushed, persecuted but not abandoned (Second Corinthians 4:8-9). He is able to entrust himself to God like a newborn child. He can recognize God's majesty even when all created things are taken from him because God's love embraced him before he had a single blessing of the created world.

If we can be like this we won't need to stop others from casting out demons in the name of Jesus just because they don't follow in our company. We are able to fully embrace all the good things that the LORD gives, even when they don't build up our own pride. We discover a world of allies and blessings where before we saw only rivals.

From you let my judgment come;
your eyes behold what is right.
Though you test my heart, searching it in the night,
though you try me with fire, you shall find no malice in me.