Job LVII

 True faith and dependence upon God are sustaining. Trusting in His sovereignty removes the burden of second-guessing ourselves or playing the ever-horrendous what could have been game within our minds. I used to do that when I was younger, wondering what would have been had I turned left when I turned right, and realized that it was both wasted time and wasted effort.

The past is the past, the present is the present, and the future is God’s territory. Throughout the years, I’ve learned not to dwell on the past, to live in the present, and to trust God in all things when it comes to the future. I’ve found it’s the only way to be surefooted and retain the joy and peace of God through the ups and downs of life.

It’s easy to get caught up in what will be or what could have been and miss out on what is, fail to live in the present, focus on today, this moment, and what we can do to further the kingdom of God. For the longest time, I was stuck in my own head, not starting a new project for fear of not being around to finish it. I usually don’t write books someone can leaf through in a few hours flat. Most of the books I’ve written are a few hundred pages, and every new book starts with a blank page, the first words, the first paragraph, and the first chapter.

I struggled with this for the longest time until one day, I saw my next-door neighbor planting some trees. His name is Bob, and he is no spring chicken. Bob also had open heart surgery a few years back, so it’s not as though he is in tip-top shape, yet there he was, shovel in hand, digging a hole, planting a tree, and going on to the next.

A Greek proverb that has made its way through the ages says a society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they will never sit. I realized the truth of it and came to terms with the reality that my duty is to run the race faithfully. It is up to God and God alone when I cross the finish line.

The next morning, I started writing again, and six books later, I still haven’t stopped. Sometimes, it’s more about starting something than being bogged down with the question of whether you’ll be around to finish it or not. If God has called you to a work, even if you are fully aware it will not be completed in your lifetime, put your hand to the plow and start doing what God has called you to do. Tomorrow comes with its own problems; it will worry about its own things. We have today, and none of us are guaranteed a tomorrow, but if today is the day I am to meet my maker, I’d like it to be while I am busy doing His work.

I realize full well that, in hindsight, it’s easy to give advice, but there were a good two years when I was just spinning my wheels, and the thought of not being around to finish what I had started haunting me to the point of paralysis. Granted, it was during the time when everyone thought the human race would go extinct from the sniffles, but if it had not been that, it likely would have been something else. I never understood the trope of being self-aware enough to get out of your own way until I did. It was an aha moment, an epiphany of sorts, both profound in its implications and humbling in its simplicity.

Sometimes, you just have to put your head down and put one foot in front of the other without any guarantees other than the knowledge that you’re doing what you’re meant to do. Even when you feel like you’re not making any progress or nothing is coming of it, press on, be diligent, and eventually, you will see it was not for naught.

It’s tempting to put off what you know you’re meant to do until the stars align, and everything clicks into place, until there’s nothing else vying for your time, and you have no worries or concerns. Everyone has their idyllic scene well fleshed out in their mind, mine being a log cabin, a crackling wood fire, the scent of cedar in the air, a hot cup of coffee, with snow gently falling outside the window, quiet, with a pet pug sleeping on a worn carpet at my feet.

I’ve got two rambunctious daughters, no pet pug, and live in a subdivision in Wisconsin. Far from idyllic, but I wake up every morning and do the work. I’ve come to realize that there will never be a perfect time except for that moment to lay aside the concerns and worries about tomorrow and what it will bring and be faithful in the present.

Job received no revelation that eventually things would turn around; an angel did not appear to him, and there was no burning bush or a voice from heaven encouraging him to press on and persevere. He’d lost everything, his health was declining with each passing day, he sat on an ash heap scratching at his boils with a potsherd, and the only thing in his future, as far as the eye could see, was more pain. All that Job had was the moment, that inhalation and exhalation of breath, and in the moment, he chose faithfulness over despondency, integrity over surrender, and trust over bitterness.

When we are anchored in faith, we are not cast to and fro by the storms of life. We remain steadfast even at our lowest, knowing the nature and character of the God we serve and standing on the promise that all things work together for good to those who love God and to those who are called according to His purpose. That’s the critical point many ignore: for all things to work together for good, you must love God. Likewise, you are called according to His purpose and not your own.

Jesus never promised an easy way or a way without trials and testing, but He did declare that He was the only way and the only means by which man can be reconciled to God and be restored to a relationship with Him. There is no other way, and if you love God and are called according to His purpose, know that whatever it is you may be struggling through today, it will work together for good.      

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Posted on 2 December 2024 | 11:03 am