Selected to Suffer
As children many of us had our first introduction to the selection process in preparation for team sports whether it be kickball, basketball, or another neighborhood game the scene typically played out the same way. Two people stood in opposite sides of a group of children and took turns picking players for their team. Often the fastest, athletic, and most popular children were selected first and everyone else hoped to be chosen to be on the same team. Nobody ever wanted to be the last person selected as being the last person selected often was the slowest one or least likely to help lead a team to victory because of some sort of issue whether physical or even because they were a cry baby. If you were the last person standing it was process of elimination and you ended up on whatever team was last to choose. This was often the most stressful time on the playground for the less popular kids. In childhood we learned that it was good to be selected and especially good to be one of the first selected, but what does it mean if like Job we have been selected to suffer? How is that the case with Job you ask? It was God that asked satan have you considered my servant Job. Yes , when satan informed God that he was going to and from in the earth looking for someone to wreck havoc on if you will God confidently offered up his servant Job because he knew that he could be trusted with the suffering to follow. He was trusted to maintain his integrity while keeping the faith in the midst of the worst trials of his life. His children died, he lost riches through various means, his wife encouraged him to curse God and die, and if that wasn’t enough his friends sat in the seat of judgement and accused him of wrongdoing. He sat wounded , sad, and although in the presence of others -alone. He sat miserable and broken all while being selected by God to endure the public shame and humiliation associated with his lost. What will you do if what you are selected to endure does not cast you in a favorable light? Do you shrink back or hide? or will you remain faithful to the season you are in while maintaining your position? Faithfulness in the messy middle is necessary to reap the reward that God has for us in the end.