Health Crises Left & Right!

I guess technically we started 2024 with emergency oral surgery for Aaron! The week of our family "staycation" started with an abscessed tooth and then extraction for Aaron.

He spent most of his only week of vacation all year like this, in quite a bit of pain and then recovering from oral surgery. Disappointment is an understatement! We made the best we could of it and still were able to surprise the kids with an overnight trip to the Great Wolf Lodge (although Aaron couldn't do any of the slides).

Grace took her turn with several visits to the dentist. One side effect of Celiac's is poor teeth. She had to have several baby teeth pulled, either because they had cracked or permanent teeth were growing above them. She isn't a big fan of the dentist, but she was so brave and did such a good job!!

August saw Aaron back for oral surgery on yet another tooth extraction. This one he decided to have an implant put in, so that was a bit more of a process in extracting and putting the post in at the same time. 

I tried to convince him not to text anyone until he was a little less loopy, but he didn't listen. His friends and co-workers were quite entertained! He didn't remember anything he said or did for about 5 hours after surgery.

September showed up with really strange hives and rashes for Jacob, all over his body. We still don't know what caused them but definitely caused some panic when he texted me and said, "My lips and tongue are twice their normal size."!!! They eventually went away, and we still don't really know what caused them, except the possibility that it was from the mold.

And November, exactly 12 years to the day since his last ones, brought Aaron 2 big kidney stones! This time, one in each kidney which will require 2 separate surgeries. He waited for over 3 hours in pre-op before his first surgery. Last time they did lithotripsy, which is an external use of sound waves to break up the stones. This urologist uses an internal laser to break up the stones and remove them. 

It was a much more difficult recovery the first 3 days. The stent between his kidney and bladder caused horribly painful spasms every time he went to the bathroom. They gradually lessened and 3 days later he was, of course, back to work all day!

The long hallway in the cabin makes for a good walking track for the recovering patient! Now he gets to wait another week before they'll remove the stent and then he gets to go through it all again to remove the other kidney stone!

All of this (and to be honest, I'm probably forgetting something!) in the midst of my health problems, Anna's injury at work & her very hard, long recovery, finding all the mold in our house, moving out, and all the regular ups and downs of life without a health crisis left & right!

 

God Can Handle Your Laments

 

Fastforward to chapter 10 of Job (we'll talk about his friends and their "advice" later) and we see that Job is not afraid to let his thoughts be known to God.

I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak of the bitterness of my soul. I will say to God, Do not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me.

Job wanted to know why God was allowing all these disasters to befall him. He earnestly wanted to know what he had done to deserve it all. Job wasn't asking why because he was curious...he wanted to be sure his conscience was clear before God. In all of chapter 10, Job never asks for God to take away his sickness. He simply asks, "Why do You contend with me?" Contend means to treat a person as wicked. Charles Spurgeon suggested a few answers to Job's question (and ours today when we go through trials):

*To show you His power to uphold you

*To develop your graces

*He wants you to enter the fellowship of His sufferings

*To humble you

Job goes on to lay his complaints before God.

Does it seem good to You that You should oppress, that You should despise the work of Your hands?

Really God? You created me & this is how You treat me?!

You know that I am not wicked.

Job knew that God knew that Job was not a wicked man! God even specifically told Satan that Job was an upright and blameless man who feared God and shunned evil! 

Your hands have made me and fashioned me, an intricate unity; yet You would destroy me.

Job felt like God was out to destroy him, understandably so! What Job didn't know is that God put limits on what Satan could take from Job (his life). What is hard to see in the midst of trials and hard times is God's power. When a believer experiences tragedy, trials, or hard times that seem to have no end, humans tend to see God as weak because those "bad" things are happening. Why wouldn't a powerful God put a stop to such awful things?! What we fail to see is the "behind the scenes" of what God very specifically allows. Just as in the case of Job, God is almighty and all-powerful and nothing that happens is outside of His hands. Why do bad things happen to good people? Well, first of all there is no such thing as "good" people. We all have wicked, sinful hearts. Some of us are redeemed by the blood of Christ but our flesh still wars against our spirit and desires to sin. Second of all, when we ask questions like that we are often viewing things with tunnel vision. We are not looking for God's power and might in those times, at least not in the way God intends for us to look. Often we are looking for His power to show in taking the trial away. What we need to look for instead is His power in the hard.

When I think of our life this past 11 months, I see a lot of hard (I haven't even written about the half of it!). But I also see God's hand in mighty and powerful ways, whether that is through friends and family, His word, His peace, doctors and nurses...God didn't choose to take away a lot of the hard for my family this year, but if we purposefully look for His power even in the hard, we will always find it because it is always there. I've also learned that God is okay with me asking "why?" and lamenting to Him, as long as I don't stay in that pit and choose to seek out His truth.

I will ponder all Your work, and meditate on Your mighty deeds. Psalm 145:11

Praise Him for His mighty deeds; praise Him according to His excellent greatness! Psalm 150:2

For you, O Lord, have made me glad by Your work; at the works of Your hands I sing for joy.

 Psalm 92:4

Why Do the Righteous Suffer?

 I mentioned I've been reading Job lately. I have, of course, read the book of Job before but I've never actually studied it. It is a very interesting book! According to some, it is the oldest book in the Bible, most likely written before 1500 B.C. Grandma's Bible notes that there is no mention of the laws which Exodus 19 and 20 tell us God gave to Moses, while Ezekiel refers to Job as a real person in chapter 14 and James mentions Job's patience in chapter 5. So, I don't think there is any disputing that Job was a real man.

The big question Job has, really, is "Why do the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper?" Job's three friends are ready and willing to share their answers to that question, but they all miss the mark (some by a mile). In the end, the answer is simply, "God is God." God's wisdom is unfathomable, unending, and deeper than we will ever understand this side of Heaven. 

In chapter 1, it is made clear that Job was a righteous man. Verse 1 says, "There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil." Strong's defines blameless as someone who is undefiled and morally pious, and upright as someone who is straight (think of the phrase "on the straight & narrow") and righteous. Not only was Job of high character, but he was also filthy rich! He had 10 children, all of whom had a close relationship with each other, thousands of sheep and camels, hundreds of donkeys and oxen, and many servants. The end of verse 3 says he was the "greatest of all the people in the east"!

Satan comes slithering into a gathering of the sons of God. The LORD asked Satan where he had come from (as if the all-knowing God didn't know!), and Satan told Him he had been walking around on the earth. Now, my question is why on earth would God point out Job to Satan, saying how righteous he was?! Satan loves nothing more than trying to destroy those who love and serve his greatest enemy. I think God had something to teach Job, even though he was a very righteous man who feared God and turned away from evil. No human on earth will ever be finished learning about the great ways of God, no matter how upright and blameless you are! Anyway, back to conversation between the LORD and Satan. After God points out Job and his high character, Satan smirks and says, "Well of course he's upright...he has everything he could ever want! Why wouldn't he praise You?!" God then gives Satan permission to take all that Job has, except his own life. And boy does Satan take every bit of what God allowed! In one day, Job lost everything he owned and every child he had. And what was Job's response? Verses 21 and 22 of chapter 1 tell us:

Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshipped. And he said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD." In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

Job worshipped and blessed the name of the LORD! Through all the hardships we have faced (and are still facing), my prayer has been that we will worship the Lord and bless His name. I take every thought captive and turn it to praise. Every time Satan sneaks a lie into my mind, I flip it for the Truth. When Satan says, "Why would a loving God allow this in your life. You have loved and served Him almost your whole life!" I flip it for God's Truth "I am the LORD your God. I will never leave you or forsake you. My ways are higher than your ways."

So why do the righteous suffer? Isn't that the age-old question?! Sometimes, God uses our suffering to glorify His name. Sometimes, God uses our suffering to teach us to more fully depend on Him. Sometimes, we never understand why the righteous suffer. We simply have to believe the Truth of God's Word and trust Him.