Being a Son Sometimes Hurts

Sometimes life is just difficult.  Take for instance my recent manager-mandated job change back to testing software.  (I am still chafing over that one.)  With no warning adversity strikes leaving us dazed and confused, wondering how to orient ourselves to the change.

Christians are supposed to know the proper response top this.  Repeat the verse with me:

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.  (Romans 8:28)

I will be honest.  That is not always comforting.  The sting of those things is sometimes fresh enough to be painful to the touch.  We do not appreciate the fit of the yoke and want to be doing something else.  (Did I mention that I am still chafing over that job change?)  So what does a guy do if he feels unjustly treated and served undeserved grief?  He learns that it happened before, and the recipient came through it for the better.

Moses reminded the nation of Israel to obey the commands being delivered (Deut 8:1).  There was good reason to do so.  The people had spent almost 40 years in the wilderness, suffering the consequences of their parents' sin.  What can be more unfair than that?  As well they were humbled and left to go a little hungry, but for a very good reason.  God wanted to make the point that dependence is solely from him.  In the face of hunger, there was manna.  There was no way to make new clothes, but non were needed.  Physically, they were up to the task for the entire journey.  It was a difficult journey, but the needs had been supplied.  Entrance to the abundant life now lay before them as reward for endurance.  The overflow of God's goodness was to be realized.

Still, there was a warning.  In the midst of abundant life, we can become lax and satisfied in the blessings, forgetting who provided them.  When that happens we pat ourselves on the back, congratulate ourselves, and join mutual admiration societies.  Idols made in our own image begin to appear, and eventually God is replaced, though he may be given lip-service.¹

The thing to remember in all this is that the Lord purposely puts his children through the wringer in order to squeeze out the impurities and the furnace to refine.  By holding fast to his word of promise, we will make it through.


Does anybody have some liniment to ease that chafing I mentioned earlier?


¹ If things ever get that far in your life, look out.  The discipline becomes more severe, sometimes fatally so.