So much to think about

It has been a while since my last post because I have been doing a lot of thinking, praying, and reading.

Thinking about brokenness, sin, loss, pain and how it affects us all. None are exempt.

Praying for some dear people close to me who are walking through a deep valley. Praying for wisdom, peace, unity and that they would see God in this valley of theirs.

And I wish I could say that I have been reading the Bible only. I have been reading it some and some other books, too. It is amazing how I can get lost in a novel. Forgetting how hard life is. From the Bible, I have been reading about the life of the church (from our sunday school class), and from the life of Job. Some not-so-small topics. On the topic of Job...I have read most of the book (I have to admit I skipped some of the middle) and there are some amazing life lessions from our friend Job. His was not an easy life. Now, I am no Bible scholar but I do have some observations from Job's life. I am especially interested in God's interaction with Job. I find it interesting that God allowed satan to test him in the first place but beyond that God allowed some pretty major pain in Job's life! It makes me thing about God's hand in our lives. In Job's case God allowed the losses, and in other stories from the Bible God causes bad things to happen. So, God allows, and God causes...do I believe that for every part of life? YES! I do believe that God certainly KNOWS. He knows my circumstances, my impatience, my grieving over broken relationships, He Knows and He cares. Oh, that sounds so trite! Trite but true.

I love what he says at the end of the book. Keep in mind that this is before God restores the things that Job lost, Job says (paraphrase) my ears had heard of you, now my eyes see you. Wow. I have a word picture in my head of Job (or me, or you) seeing life, his kids, his wife, his cows and land and knowing that God was there and loved him. NOW, after he has lost all those things HE SEES GOD! I think there is something there for us! Do we see God in our kid's disobedience? in our inability to stay calm when the kids are driving me crazy(those are my examples) , do we see his desire for us to be like him, do we see his hand in our circumstances? The good and the bad or do we just hear about him as though he is "over there".

Ok, nothing profound people, just me thinking through my theology (I say that loosely) of pain and loss.