"His wife said to him, 'Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!' He (Job) replied, 'You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?'" Job 2: 9, 10
When it was deemed my father had dementia, my mother was in denial initially, forbidding that word to be mentioned. Indeed, we all wondered what lay ahead for our family. As the disease progressed and stole her husband away bit by bit, she once lamented, "I didn't ask for this!" Yet, on a whole, she wore the mantel of caregiver with true grace and strength that could only have come from the Holy Spirit within her.
Recently, while reading a book about the caregivers of cancer patients, this man's comment regarding his wife's diagnosis stood out: "I felt like we had gotten on the wrong bus, with only sick people, and we couldn't get off." The Cancer Bus; who would choose to board it?
Some of life's journeys have no further stops before the end of the line, but some do. For twenty-five years, I'd had a "thorn in the flesh," an autoimmune disorder which, I'd been told I would contend with for the rest of my life. Then, though I didn't ask for this, God healed me of it. I got off that bus.
In the book of Job, Satan was permitted to push this "blameless and upright" man, Job, onto a struggle bus of great suffering. His diabolical purpose was to hear Job curse God to His face. (Job 2:5) Even after unimaginable loss and painful infliction, Job chose to place his trust in the character of God. The Bible says he fell to the ground in worship and "in all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing." (1:22)
We don't have access to the bus schedule but, as Christians, we do have access to the limitless grace and mercy of The Driver, God. Whether we're let off or not, He takes care of us during the ride.
"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:8
"I know that You can do all things; no purpose of Yours can be thwarted." Job 42:2
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