Today’s Scripture
Reading (April 9, 2012): Job 30
I suffer from severe asthma and allergies. I really try not to let it
slow me down. I love to be involved in sports – even though admittedly I am not
very good. When I was younger it was football that I really liked to play. I
love hockey, but I couldn’t skate as well as I would have liked. And tackling
was frowned on in basketball. So I played football.
But even though I tried to not let the illness get the better of me,
there were times when that was exactly what it did. There were times when I
thought it just might win. And I would have to dig a little deeper – or try a
little harder. My illness had become like a piece of my clothing that I just
couldn’t take off – and often I was really tired of wearing it.
There are times when illness just seems to grab hold of you. It is no
wonder that we personify it. It becomes like a character, playing a major part
in our story; sometimes it becomes our friend, but more often it plays the part
of our enemy. And that is exactly where Job finds himself. A better translation
of this verse might be “The power of the disease covers me; it binds me at the
neck the collar of my clothes.” It is as if I am wrestling with someone and
they have me by the neck. It is like I am fighting God and I am about to go
down for the count. There is nothing more that I can do. I am finished. In
reality, it is just the illness that has him. But it feels more like the very
hands of God that are laying heavy on him.
The unfortunate truth of this life is that there is always illness and
pain. And as much as we may want to ignore it, that won’t make it go away. But
as much as God may allow the illness into our lives (after all, it was God that
allowed the illness into Job’s life,) he will also never leave us. If our
illness fits us like a garment, we can trust that God’s fits us even closer.
And in the middle of our pain that is a good thing for us to lean on.
Tomorrow’s
Scripture Reading: Job 31
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