Lessons From Job

My Lenten Promise this spring was to catch up on all of the Bible in a Year podcasts and then finish the series through the rest of the year. My promise has been easy to keep as I have really enjoyed listening to Father Mike Schmitz read the Bible and then give his thoughts on the verses and characters highlighted. Currently, he has focused on several stories that have been interesting such as the lives of Jacob and Joseph. The one that I have paid the most attention to, however, has been the life of Job. It is by far one of the hardest to understand as it seems that Job's piety was rewarded with only more suffering. 

The details of Job's life seem incredibly unfair to me and there was a time period in my own life that I would not have been in the right mindset to listen to his story. The past year and a half has changed that for me. Doug, Cameron and I have been dealt with some severe blows since December of 2021. Health issues, work stress, and preparing for life after Cameron leaves home has been a lot to deal with these past fifteen months. Richard's murder and the difficulties that processing grief brought to our family only intensified our struggle to cope with adversity. For a time it felt as though every time we turned a corner that we would hit a wall. I would never compare our life to Job's, but Doug and I definitely have been working through one of the most challenging time periods in our married life. It has not helped that the person that Doug that he trusted to help him during this struggle completely turned his back on him. 

As hard as life has been recently, I have watched Doug handle it all with grace. He's been a great role model for me. Instead of being bitter over what has happened, he has instead pointed to the positives in our life as well. During this same time period of hardships, Cal, Meg and Brett have prospered both in their careers and in their personal lives as well. Doug has also outlined how far we have come dealing with these adversities since they first arose. His positive attitude has reminded me that God doesn't promise us an easy path in life. He instead promises to stand with us a long the way. Suffering happens to all, even the most pious. Complaining, whining, or resenting God has never been the answer as seen in the life of Job. Patience, perseverance, taking the higher road and Faith - those lessons have resonated in the words of Father Mike this past week. I have appreciated them more and more each day.