A few years ago, we were sitting in line at a red light when somebody slammed into the back of our van. The other car hit us so hard that even though we were sitting still, the momentum pushed our van into the car in front of us and back again into the original car that had hit us. So by the time we stopped moving, we had been hit twice in the back of the van and once in the front. The back windshield had shattered, the van was totaled, our children were screaming; it was a mess.
Praise the Lord; everybody was fine, just shaken up. It was quite a traumatic experience for Matt and I and our two small children. Fast-forward one year later to almost the day, we were rear-ended again on the same road!! It was less than a mile from the location of the first accident. Once again, we were sitting in line at a red light talking when a cargo van slammed into us from behind. The impact pushed our van into the middle of a busy intersection. The back windshield shattered, the van was totaled, our now three children were screaming. Same exact story. I remember right after the impact, I turned quickly to check on the kids and said, “What the …?! ” I caught myself right before I put an expletive in there. I was so peeved that it had happened again! The first thing that came to mind was not something good. I am always ashamed when I remember that story. In the heat of the moment, I got so worked up that I didn’t control what was coming out of my mouth.
Because of that story, I am always amazed and impressed with Job’s response to his trial, which far surpasses mine. I was reading in Job chapter one this morning. It is a very familiar story for most people. Job was the greatest man in the East in his day. He was incredibly wealthy, had ten children, and was very well-known. Yet in one day, he lost everything except for his wife. One by one, messengers come to tell Job of all that he had lost. As I come to the end of the chapter and feel the weight of Job’s grief and everything that he has lost, I find myself almost holding my breath. What is Job going to do? How is he going to respond? I wouldn’t be able to survive all this. What is his response?
Job 1:21 And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.
I am always stunned when I read these words, no matter how many times I have read this account. How in the world could Job respond this way? In the worst moments of his life, his automatic response is to praise God’s name. I don’t know how anybody could do this. My thought is that Job was so used to praising God for all he had and seeing everything he had as a gift from God, that when the unthinkable happened, his automatic response was to praise the Lord. It doesn’t mean he didn’t grieve. The next several chapters record his grieving and hurting process. He just made it a practice to thank God for everything He had.
I am so challenged by Job’s response. The words that rush to my lips when something bad happens are not, “blessed be the name of the Lord.” I have had nothing in my life as traumatic as Job’s story. His story challenges me to be so used to thanking God and seeing everything in my life as God sees it. Maybe one day, my automatic response could be like Job’s.
The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
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