I love shoes! Then again, what woman doesn’t love shoes! Unlike my husband who has one pair of dressy shoes and one pair of casual shoes, I have several pairs of comfortable walking shoes, several pairs of dressy shoes and several fashionable pairs of boots, all of which come in an assortment of colors. Out of all my shoes, my summer sandals are my favorite. However, there are days when I think I have traded my comfortable, non-blistering sandals in for Job’s rough, too big, toe pinching ones!

Those are the days when the car won’t start and the kids are trying to bath the cat in the toilet while I am on the phone trying to explain to another bill collector that he has to stand in line for his money. Those are the days when I have to deal with a strained marriage. They are the days when I have to deal with aging parents and a wayward teenager or deal with loosing my home or finding out that the innocent lump under my arm is NOT that innocent!

Sometimes, those days are all in the same week!

I Corinthians 10:13 says, “And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.”

Does God not know that my back gave out three trials ago?

Maybe God is punishing me for sin in my life. So I start confessing and repenting off any thing that I can think of! I beg God to show me where the sin is but my heart is pure before Him.

My gaze falls to my sandals and I recall Job’s story.

Job was a man who “feared God and shunned evil” yet he experienced more grief in one day than I will experience in a lifetime! In a matter of hours, Job lost all his wealth, livestock and servants plus all of his 10 children!!!

I can not imagine Job’s anguish as he sought God. It was a prominent belief of Job’s day that if you lived with out sin God would bless you but if you lived in sin, God would remove those blessings. Job’s confusion must have been great as he pleaded with God to show him any sin and he could find none! Job must have wondered, “What is going on?” My thoughts echo his as I too try to understand the “why” amid my own pains of life.

Then I open my bible and read Job’s story again; especially the part that Job never knew took place and I often overlook when I search for comfort from my suffering.

Satan comes before God who asks him, “Where have you been?”

Satan replies, “I have been roaming the earth”

In essence, Satan whines, “You are not a God worthy of worship. You have to pay people to honor you! Of course, Job serves you—look at the life you have blessed him with!”

God gives permission to Satan to test Job but he is not allowed to touch his body. So, Job is stripped of all he has. The whole spiritual realm holds its breath to see if Job will prove Satan right.

Satan’s fundamental law for life is – what is in it for me? To him every human act can be explained by selfish motives. He couldn’t imagine any one serving God other than for what was in it for them. He believed Job was no different.

Satan was wrong.

Job’s response to loosing every thing was, “he got up and tore his robes and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground and worshipped.”

In Job’s deepest hurt he worshipped God! It was a sight that drove Satan into a fit! Angry the enemy goes back to God and accuses Him of still buying Job’s love with protecting Job’s health. Once again, God places Job in the enemy’s hand, forbidding him to take Job’s life.

Job’s body is then ravaged with painful boils. He is in such agony that his wife advises him to curse God and die!

Once again the heavens hold their breathe waiting for Job’s response.

“You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall I accept good from God and not trouble?” Job 2:9-10

The enemy slinks off in defeat and God restores to Job all that he had lost.
I look down at my sandals. Maybe they aren’t so different from Job’s.

“See, Stephanie, she only serves you because you’ve been blessing her. You take away her security. You take away her health,” the enemy accuses “and I bet she won’t be so quick to praise you! You take away her children and see if she’ll bow down to you then!”
Why did Job suffer? Why do we suffer?

There is a battle being fought. The devil, Satan is the accuser of men. He accused Job. He accuses me and he will accuse others. God wants to prove to Satan that through out the seen and the unseen world that men and women will honor and worship Him even though they might loose everything, and even though they know God allowed it to happen, they will still worship God simply because of who God is!

I reach down and touch my sandals and tears come as I think about how many times I have proven Satan right in his accusations against my God. Oh, I have loved God when the going was good but the moment things got tough I started to blame Him. I started to turn away from Him not realizing that the picture of my life is so much bigger than I know.

Job didn’t know. I can see Job sitting in heaven with God in total amazement as God shows Him the whole canvas of his life and how his story has changed lives hundreds of years later and how his response to his sufferings affected so much more than himself!

Oh, I want to be worthy of wearing Job’s sandals! From this moment on I choose to be a woman the enemy is afraid of rather than one he couldn’t be bothered with. I will raise my banner to the seen and the unseen world and I will stand firm no matter what God allows to come my way. I will serve him even though things may go sour in my church, or in my home, with my children or with my health and finances. I will serve God not for what is in it for me but I will serve Him because of who He is!

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I shall return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord!” Job 1:21

I might not know what is going on behind the scenes of my life, but like Job, I need to trust the God who controls the behind the scenes. Suddenly, Job’s sandals are not so hard to wear when my gaze isn’t down but up!

Feedback welcomed at robbins@hfx.eastlink.ca