Skip to main content

I Shall Come Forth as Gold

             But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. (Job 23:10) 

            Gulp. Help. Over the past two days, I’ve experienced a slow flash of inspiration. Yes, I know: “slow” and “flash of inspiration” don’t sound right together, but that’s often how ideas work. They are both slow and fast at the same time. It started with my finding the disks that I bought to make the signs for my windows. January begins 2024 and it’s only 16 days away.

          What rhymes with four? Nothing interesting suggests itself.

What ideas can I tie to twenty-four?

The first glimmer of light… twenty-four…karat …gold. Gold really isn’t my color. I prefer blue tones like silver, but OK, it’s a nice bit of fun.

Probably twelve hours later, today’s verse rose from the depths and latched hold of the 24-carats. Naturally, my heart sank. Does this mean I am going to have a miserable, trying, difficult year? Excuse me while I whine. “I don’ wanna!”

But… “I shall come forth as gold.”

I’m not sure I want to pay the price.

And then the logic kicks in. Did I not face challenges every other year of my life?  Do I really think I will walk down “Easy Street” in 2024? Is that even slightly realistic? Of course not. So the key here isn’t whether or how I avoid difficulties in 2024 but my attitude about them. Whether they make Job’s sufferings look like a leisurely stroll or Job’s sufferings were a million times worse, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is whether I hold on to the same assurance that he did. No matter what the trials, I will be the better for it when they are done.

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Way, The Truth, and The Life

              Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me . (John 14:6)           If “I am the gate of the sheep…I am the good shepherd” from chapter 10 is a double whammy, this verse is a triple whammy. And its first victim is the notion that any other so-called god was acceptable or the same as Jesus. He, and He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to get to the Father. There is no other Savior, or Redeemer, according to Jesus. Now, to be fair, other religions will claim that their religion or god(s) are the only way. That is the nature of gods and of religions. If this and that are equally good and agree on what’s necessary, then this and that are the same thing, so there’s no need to from the other to one. If that’s the case, then why speak against the other or promote the one? There’s a song I’ve been listening to i...
Post a Comment
Read more