So the facebook post went something like this: Why does God allow bad people to do bad things to good people? The idea sounds to me something like this: wouldn't a loving God protect his people? Why be good if bad is still going to happen to you?
I don't know if it was intended to be an introduction to this week's sunday school lesson, but it very much was.
Now, full disclosure. I live a very blessed life. My health is good, I have time to pursue my passions and try to be a light house to others. My wife is awesome, and my relationship with her is an 11 on a scale of 10. My job is good because I'm my own boss, and I make enough. Recently, when I don't make enough, my wife's income is more than enough to compensate. She out earns my best months lately. My children mostly live close, and they are all moving forward in their lives. I'm not being tested. Everyone around me is though.
For some, it's continuous horrible physical pain and no job. For some, it's a continuous lack of money and a resulting depression & inadequacy. For some, it's loneliness, or a feeling of never being able to fit in. Or it is a lifelong history of abuse: sexual, verbal, physical - all of it. I know people who fit in all of these categories. For my dad, until he passed a couple of months ago, it was day in and day out loneliness. For years, he went to bed having done nothing, and in the morning he had nothing to do. We did our best, but you can't make a burden like that go away completely.
Why does life have to be so hard? For everybody but me, at least.
And the lesson this week is Job. He had it all back in his day: sheep, camel, all of it. He was the rich guy. Did it make him vain? Nope - I heard a phrase once that money doesn't make you evil, it just magnifies whatever you are. Job was a man of God. He knew what he was, and who he believed in. He had a relationship with his redeemer. This wasn't a matter of convenience because professing religion got him "in" with the religious leaders. It wasn't because he liked the other members of the congregation. It didn't assist him in his deal making as he was trading sheep for goats. He loved the Lord because he knew the Lord. Like Abraham, he knew the voice of the Lord because he had heard and followed that voice many times.
This is not a man who was afraid of judgment day, this is a man who knew that when he met his Redeemer, he would run to him and embrace him.
I'm not sure that the way the old testament reads is completely correct. As it is translated, it sounds like God and Satan were playing a game of chess, using Job as the pawn. To me it's a bit different than that. I believe that when we are born, Christ puts a protective ring around us. A full circle ring that prevents us from being jabbed by Satan in areas where we are unprepared and vulnerable. Then, little by little, line upon line, he removes some part of our protections, and allows us to battle the adversary and build our own protections. Our own testimony, our own wisdom, our own strength, our own relationship with the Savior. This is why we were sent here.
The Lord knew Job would pass his tests, which is why he allowed Job to be so tested. He knows we can pass our tests, which is why he allows us to have them. Job's loss of his herds, his family and his health were not curses from God. They were extremely unpleasant, and none of his tests were something I'd want to wish on myself, but they were gifts. They allowed Job to exhibit his greatness. They allowed him to go from being a really good man that lived among the sagebrush thousands of years ago, who would be forgotten a generation later, to a biblical light house. A beacon of strength to all of us who struggle. He was a foreshadow to a greater man who would give His all as well. That man is our Redeemer. My Redeemer.
I have experienced pain in my life. My own choices brought me more pain than I can describe. Years upon years of pain, and the pain will never end while I'm alive. But it did help me get to know my Redeemer - he took my poor choices upon himself, and I willingly gave them to him. They are His now, and as a whole, my life is happier than anyone else I know.
May we trust God, take our difficulties in a trusting way, and rely on Him to get through them. Greatness comes from asking Him to help us as we grow ourselves toward being more like him.
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