Guys weāre all confused. Okay, maybe not all of us but a majority of us for sure. As I type us (including myself) I mean believers. At some point in our lives our culture has swamped us and we have let it run rampant in confusing us.
So Iāll stop speaking in circles now and get down to the point. Friends weāve confused what joy and pain look like in relation to the gospel. And weāve also confused the American Dream with a gospel we were never supposed to preach, desire or aim for. Hereās where Iāve seen this ideology go astray in my own life and how God is leading me back to the duality of living with joy and with pain.
For all who read my blog and know me personally you know my love for mental health is most likely the window in which I see the world and aim to help people see themselves and see Jesus. Now thatās all fine and dandy in this day and age considering the mental health statistics for last year alone.
For instance, āGlobally, the median number of mental health workers is 9 per 100,000 population, but there is extreme variation (from below 1 per 100,000 population in low-income countries to over 50 in high-income countries).ā Taken from World Health Organization (WHO) mental health laws will be changing drastically over the next 4 years, steaming from world wide initiatives made by WHO & hopefully being implemented by various countries involved.
So I had one dream like many other kids growing up, young adults finding their way. A dream turned in to a calling,which turned into a burden, which turned into a life path or what I like to call things we force into our walk, a ālife mustā. Although our giftings are given for purpose and have echoes into eternity we try to package them up into our small short time here on earth. Oh vey. The problem with a life must is, it leaves no room for error.
No room for grace. And we believers know we need grace because we are full of errors. Grace to be kind to others, to be kind to ourselves, to be walking down the street or singing at a red light. Whatever were doing we need it & God so graciously provides. Ha, get it? Pun intended. (Nerdy-ness apparent.)
When our ālife mustsā do not go as we desired we have pain. We feel we have failed, anyone and anything that did not go according to our plans. But this isnāt the pain Iām speaking of. Because that is a topical pain to begin with. The real pain stems from the ideology behind it, a thought process which evolved into a mind set that gave birth to a life style in opposition to God & His word.
We speak of joy and pain in a believersā life as if the two cannot exist simultaneously. But when you take a closer look Jesus has told us we will have both. At the same time. Which means simultaneously. Which means coexisting can happen.
Tears while laughing. Singing while weeping. Lament and dancing. Confusing? Sure if you want to remain at a surface level of understanding but if you seek wisdom to decipher this, itās simple to see. Simple to see? Yes, difficult to believe? Yes again. But building of #Pursuit1 we know belief and dependence are required of our hearts.
Do we not take Jesus at His word when He tells us we will have troubles? Do we not take Jesus at His word when He promised us He will be with us to the very end of the age? Do we not believe and depend on the fact, the promise that God says we will be filled with joy when the Spirit is our portion?
This week this idea has become crystal clear to me and I will tell you why. Job. Job was a chill dude considering his life story. This is a story(all about how my life got twisted upside downā¦I digress) I am quite familiar with but for what reasons? Iām not sure until now, maybe itās for this post only who knows how God works. But here is one thing Job conquered very well; the duality of joy and pain in a believer. Job understood his role and Godās role in every single situation that we read is brought on him. In the face of extreme loss, loss some of us will actually never know Job had all the wisdom to understand who God is even while his circumstances shifted from glorious to desolate.
Even when his dreams, dreams from a blameless man, a righteous man the bible calls Job are literally squashed. Smashed right to the ground, everything gone. I cannot think of 5 people right now in my life whom God has squashed everything they have ever known or matter of fact I canāt think of 5 blameless righteous people, perhaps because itās late at night but I digressā¦Job was unique in the sense where he recognized his spirit & pointed to God as Almighty. How many of us can say we would bless and put our hope in God when our life must is squashed? That is what Job did. Job had the wisdom and understanding of who God was/is and that is how the duality of joy and pain existed in his life.
I for sure did not bless and hope in God when my dreams started to look different than what I had pictured them. For a short time I thought hmm must be a mishap, maybe God meant this instead, I'll wait on it. Woe to me! How many of us have thought God doesn't have it right? He knows me and knows all but maybe He meant this instead?... We all do it subtly and in other ways quite blatantly in our minds and in our actions. Whether it's from believing when we love and trust God our lives will be prosperous and awesome. Or simply believing God doesn't discipline those He loves. What rubbish we tell ourselves at times.
Of course, there is no absence of lamenting Job does throughout the chapters of the book but there is an underlying current of being with God in every situation. Knowing God is sovereign in the midst, not speaking an ill word against who God is. I mean do we have that kind of wisdom? Or do we believe in the American Dream more than the word of God?
Do we believe that we deserve that job at our family business? Or that scholarship to university? Or that new house with more than 2 acres of land? The point of this is that no one deserves more than dirt thrown in their face. We are all hopeless without God and our āhard workā and āgood deedsā will get us no where without the wisdom and understanding of who God is. We know we need faith to get to God and to do good deeds. Faith, grace, love. We need them all.
No matter what your feelings have concocted, no matter what culture has slipped into your mindset, no matter what your experiences have shifted in your attitude towards life. Job figured out how to live in his pain with joy that is sustained by God. God. Alone.
When you look at the book of Job in this sense, we no longer see only the misery, complaining, and his sketchy friends (Eliphaz,Bildad,Zophar) banter. We see submission, we see God glorified, we see a witness that we so desperately need today. We see a disheartened man who is completely fulfilled. We see a miserable man asking for death but pleading his argument on life before God. How can this be?!
Job had unparalleled wisdom in knowing his role in relationship to trial,to loss, and most importantly to God. He never tried to grieve hard enough to get past losing his children, he didnāt curse God for what had happened although He knew God hand was upon his calamity. He just understood God was still God in all of his mess and kept going.
Can we keep going? Can we believe Godās hand is upon and in everything because He made everything and is in everything? Or should we cling to the American Dream and work just slightly harder than we already do to achieve greatness? Friends, letās not be full of error and foolishness in that way. Letās dance and cry and let God be the righteousness we so desire.