Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Having a Job moment...

So, one of my favorite stories in the Bible is the story of Job and how God allows Satan to test him. If you aren't familiar with the story, you can find it in Job chapters 1-42 and it is pretty interesting. The story starts with Job a man that follows God and is obedient. He leads a pretty good life. One day God allows Satan to test Job to see if during hard times, Job will continue to be faithful. Various things are done to Job, his home, and his belongings. Things get rough enough, that even Job's wife says to him, "Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die." So loving and supportive, huh? Eventually, Job's attitude sours. I've been having a Job kind of week. On Thursday, we found out that my body isn't doing so great with the pregnancy and I had to have a procedure that evening and go on immediate bed rest. All at once I felt hit by the fears of possibly losing another child, leaving my job for 5-6 months without any advance notice, and knowing my FMLA period would run out well before we are able to get our kids home from Congo. This weekend we discovered a roof leak that we thought was fixed. Then today we found out that the country of DR Congo has decided that both parents have to go there for at least 2 weeks if not longer to pick up the children. Previously, it was going to work out for Jim to go with a friend. Given my current situation, this REALLY complicates things. So, the past few days have just been beating me up emotionally. In the story of Job, God delivers a list of rhetorical questions to Job that had to have Job shaking in his sandals. It starts with God telling Job to brace himself like a man. (Side note, I think that is Jim's favorite part of the story. He tries to fit that line into every day conversation pretty regularly.) Basically God's questions to Job are to remind Job that God is in control and has a plan. My reminder that God is in control came through a piece of mail today from a longtime friend. It was a newspaper clipping from 1998 when my place of employment burned down. I remember seeing the restaurant on fire and thinking, "My paycheck is in there!" I thought my world was ending and didn't know how I was going to make it. That seems so long ago and so insignificant now. Job's response after God finishes questioning him is this, "I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted." Right now things in our life seem a little crazy but we trust that God is in control. Things will work out the way He has planned. Someday this short period of time that seems so critical and stressful will be no big deal to us. Please keep praying for our kids in Congo and for our overall situation. May God allow us all to be together soon. -Amber

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