"Here be God!"

I admit up front that this blog will likely be a little longer than some of my others, and if you don't have the time to read it I certainly understand. Sometimes life throws 'curves' at you and this is one of those times for the James family. Here's the devotion I shared with our staff this morning.

A young man applied for a job as a signal man with the railroad. For his interview he was told to meet an old inspector at the signal box. The inspector began the test by asking "What would you do if you saw two trains were on the same track headed toward one another?" to which the young man answered, "That's easy, I'd pull the lever switching one of the trains from one track to the other." The inspector asked, "What if the switching lever was broke?" "Then I would jump down out of the signal box and use the manual lever." "What if the manual lever had been struck by lightning and didn't work?" "Then I'd run back to the signal box and phone the next signal box to let them know what was happening so they could switch one of the trains." "Well, what if their phone was busy?" "I would rush up the tracks and use the public phone." "What if the public payphone had been vandalized and didn't work?" "Well then I'd run into town and get my uncle." The puzzled inspector asked "Why would you go get your uncle?" "That's simple. Because he has never seen a train crash before!" 

Unlike that man's uncle most of us have seen 'train crashes' before; not the trains that run on tracks but those moments in life that go horribly wrong. Maybe it's a bankruptcy, a divorce, an illness, whatever. Those times when you life goes 'off track' and you are stunned and devastated by the 'crash.'

In Job 1, a whole host of horrible things happen to Job, not the least of which was the sudden death of all of his children. The chapter ends amazingly to me when in verses 20-22 we read, "Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped. And he said: 'Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.' In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong."

There were 4 things in that text that Job did that serve as examples to us when life has that unexpected painful detour. 

First, you have to express your grief honestly. Verse 20 points out three things that Job did to express his grief. First he "tore his robe." This was a customary way of expressing grief and as I read it, to me it was a symbol of a broken and torn heart. Second the text says he "shaved his head." Whereas the robe was as immediate expression of his grief the shaved head served as a long term expression of pain and grief. Every time he rubbed his head or felt a chill he would be reminded of his hurt. But as the hair grew out it would serve as a reminder that life goes on and with time the pain passes. Third it says Job fell to the ground. But notice he did not fall in hopelessness, he fell in worship.

After expressing honestly your grief, second Job acknowledged that all blessings come from God. "He said in verse 21, "The Lord gave." James 1:17 captures this as well when James, the half-brother of Jesus wrote, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning."

Third, Job expressed the fact that there are times when God takes something from you without giving you a reason. He said, "The Lord gave, AND the Lord has taken away." In the following chapters of the book Job asks God "Why?" but there is no biblical evidence that the Lord ever explained why all of these things happened to him. 

Some may know the name John Claypool. John was born in 1930 in Franklin, Kentucky. He was called to the ministry and graduated from Southern Seminary in Louisville; he would pastor 3 Kentucky Baptist congregations. While in Seminary in Louisville, John and his wife had a daughter, Laura Lou, to die from Leukemia. To try and explain the loss that he and his wife felt John related a story from his childhood. During World War II his family did not own a washing machine and were too poor to go to the laundry; keeping clothes clean was a chore. John's neighbor enlisted in the army and his wife and kids decided to go live with some family until he returned from Europe. They had a brand new Bendix wringer washer and allowed John's family to use it while they were away.  

Over the course of the war young John actually forgot that the machine had only been loaned to his family. When the war was over and the neighboring family returned they took back their washing machine. This upset John and he got angry that they had taken "his" machine. His mom helped him with this. She said, "John, you must remember the washing machine never belonged to us and the fact we got to use it was a gift. So instead of being mad that it was taken away, be thankful that you ever had it."

John Claypool said for years he struggled with the death of 8 year old Laura Lou until one day he remembered that old Bendix wringer washer. In his book Steps of a Fellow Struggler he wrote: "When I remember that Laura Lou was a gift pure and simple, something I neither earned nor deserved nor had a right to; and when I remember that the appropriate response to a gift is gratitude, then I am better able to try and thank God that I was ever given her in the first place."

That friend is exactly how I think Job felt; he knew everything good in his life were gifts from God. And as the One who gave the gifts, God also had the right to take them away. 

The fourth and final thing we can learn from this passage is that when you don't 'feel like it' you 'faith it.' I didn't say you 'fake' it but that you 'faith' it. What do you think Job felt like doing? In chapter two we meet "Mrs. Job" and her faith was not nearly as strong as her husbands. Verse 9 of chapter 2 she says to Job, "Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and Die!" While Job certainly may have had some difficult feelings to work through he determined not to live by feelings but rather to live by faith.  

When we are hurting, we must make a choice that by faith we will offer our praise to God; that's when we 'faith' it. Let's be honest, its easy to offer God praise when everything is wonderful in life. But when praise is offered amidst great pain, it becomes a precious sacrifice to God. Maybe that's what the writer of Hebrews had in mind in Hebrews 13:15, "Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name."

Before Columbus decided to 'sail the ocean blue' in 1492, the common belief was that if a person sailed far enough west they would simply fall off the face of the earth. In England there was an old nautical map that dated to King Henry IV from the previous century. On it, the mapmakers wrote on top of the Atlantic Ocean the words "Here be dragons; Here be demons; Here be danger." Based on those superstitious warnings sailors were afraid to sail there. But there was an English navigator named John Franklin. Franklin was a mighty man of God who knew the Word of God. He knew that the prophet Isaiah in 40:22 said, "God sits above circle of earth." So on that knowledge he took that same nautical map crossing out those fearful words and writing instead, "Here be God." As you and I sail the deep and sometimes stormy waters of life; as we face our fears and anxieties, we can take comfort in the fact we are not alone. If you are struggling today and hurting; searching for answers that just aren't coming, allow the Holy Spirit to write on your heart the words "Here be God."