In case you’re not familiar with the phrase, a “Job day” is a day in which everything seems to be going wrong–a la Job in the Bible. One day as Job’s children were enjoying a feast at their oldest brother’s house, a servant came to Job to tell him that his oxen and donkeys had been raided. Then another servant arrived to tell Job that all of his sheep and shepherds had been killed by lightening. Another servant arrived to say that Job’s camels had been raided and their keepers killed. As a final blow, a last servant arrived to inform Job that his eldest son’s house had collapsed, killing every one of Job’s children.
I can’t say my day is quite as bad as Job’s–No one has died, at any rate. But today has still been a bit trying.
It began at midnight. I was still awake from yesterday, and my nose began to run. It ran for several hours–right down the back of my throat–keeping me from being able to sleep and enduing me with a magnificent sore throat.
I finally slept around 7 am. Waking up at noon to a particularly obnoxious song blaring from my computer, I noticed pop-ups appearing on my computer screen. I investigated a bit–and discovered that I had a Trojan. After several hours of investigation and tweaking, I think I removed it all.
But having been reminded that computers are intrinsically fragile, I thought to back up my files again. So I logged on to the family server to back up my files–and discovered that I didn’t have permission to make any changes within my own designated folder. I should have been able to make changes–I backed up the family photos onto the same drive yesterday. But even after a couple more hours of fiddling, I was having no success.
So I dropped by my parent’s house to see if I could adjust permissions from my mom’s computer (the same computer I’d backed up the family photos from the day before). But, to my surprise and horror, I no longer had permission to do anything on the server from there either. I fiddled a bit with no success, unsuccessfully tried to access the server in the basement directly, and finally decided to give up and have a piece of candy.
I was putting Mom’s full candy jar back when it slipped out of my hand and shattered all over her living room floor.
The post-nasal drip has continued. I put on my skirt this afternoon to find that the hem has ripped loose since I last wore it. My new thigh highs won’t stay at my thigh–instead one side slips down to below my knees. My nose is raw, my throat hurts, and I haven’t gotten even one item on my to-do list done today.
I struggle with Job’s response to his very bad day: “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Instead of returning to praise the Lord, to often I turn to recount my grievances. Sure this day has been a bad day–but then I make it worse by borrowing trouble. I stew about my news from the eye doctor–I’d rather have been born blind than start going blind from glaucoma now. I stew over my singleness. I stew over everything.
The Lord gave me eyesight–doesn’t He have the right to take it back? The Lord gave me health–doesn’t He have the right to retract it? The Lord gave me time–doesn’t He have the right to “waste” it? I came into the world naked and helpless–and I’ll return to the earth in the same state. Is God not still worthy of praise?
So I will praise Him not for what He has done or not done for me, but for who He is. He is GOOD. He is FAITHFUL. He is HOLY. He is ALL-POWERFUL.
My circumstances have changed–but God has not. He is not broken like Mom’s candy jar. He is not swollen like my throat. He is not malfunctioning like my thigh highs. He is not infected like my computer (was). And I still have access to Him–even if I can’t access my folder on the server.
God, it’s been a tough day. But I’m going to praise you anyway.