Surrendering in the Ashes: Blessed Be the Lord

Or maybe you experience in other ways in life. You you you take an umbrella with you when you go out the door morning because you think it's going to rain and it doesn't rain. But then that that morning that you actually don't take an umbrella and actually rains, or that time when you're on a phone call and it's a really important phone call, you finally got through to the doctor's office, you finally got to someone who can actually make the appointment for you and actually begin to to to to help you towards health and healing, and then your battery dies. [00:38:23] (27 seconds)  #PerfectTimingFail

Now we're in this season of Lent, and we're looking at this a little bit in the light of what it looks like for one of the oldest books in the Bible, the book of Job. Job's book occurs sometimes during the patriarch time period, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, guys we hear about back in in Genesis. And Job's story for us as we began on Ash Wednesday and as we'll continue to, go through both on our Wednesday evening services at seven in here and also during our weekend services and bible study as well on Sunday morning, we'll continue to go through this this book of Job. [00:39:02] (33 seconds)  #LentJobSeries

And Job doesn't have Murphy's Law. Job's Law is more like this. Anything not Murphy's Law was anything that could go wrong will go wrong. Job's Law is this, anything that could go bad will go worse. That's Job's Law. Job chapter one, we heard it read a little bit earlier. We heard it it described of Job's as I learned it as a kid in the in the book, Alexander and the terrible, no good, horrible, very bad day. Well, this was Job's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. [00:39:35] (32 seconds)  #JobLaw

Did you hear back there in Job chapter one what what happened to him? In one afternoon, his life collapses. A messenger comes in, and he tells him the Sabians have stolen the oxens and the donkeys, and the servants have been slaughtered. Before he finishes speaking, another fire from heaven has burned up the sheep and the shepherds. Before he finishes, another, the Chaldeans have taken the camels, and they killed more servants. And while he's still speaking, another comes, and a great wind struck the house where his sons and daughters were feasting. The house fell. All 10 kids are dead. [00:40:07] (35 seconds)  #JobsCatastrophe

It's a drumbeat, isn't it? While he was still speaking. While he was still speaking. While he was still speaking. Grief doesn't wait its turn. The devastation doesn't catch its breath. Job is hit left, right, left, right. It's going for the knockout punch. How much more can he take? Maybe you've known this feeling, this feeling of getting some horrible news, devastation, destruction. We know what it's like when catastrophe hits our life. [00:40:42] (34 seconds)  #GriefHitsHard

But the question is not when or if catastrophe is going to hit our life, but when it hits our life, how are we gonna respond? There's kind of three ways I think we typically respond when the crisis comes, when disaster hits. And the first option when it comes is that we can let the this disaster, we can let this suffering, it can destroy us, like like, end us. You know what I mean? It's like a a tidal wave that hits, a tsunami that hits, and it wipes out everything. Everything I've loved swept away. Everything you've built is gone. Every day feels heavier like the one before. There's no hope. There's no future. Just wreckage. [00:41:16] (39 seconds)  #SufferingCanDestroy

And you throw up your hands, and you just simply say, I'm I'm done. And you check out a life, and it destroys you. That's it. Another way people respond when it comes to suffering and when it comes to tragedy is that it can also can also define you define you. In fact, you might know people who who suffering actually defines the the their life, that they replay the disaster that they experienced, and it might have been, like, twenty seven years ago, but they still play the loop over and over again. [00:41:55] (34 seconds)  #DefinedByPain