Dig in. Dig in. When in doubt, dig in. It’s these two words that ring daily in my ears. In fact, it’s these two words that encompass my life as of late. Everytime I have a question about direction, these words fly up to the forefront of my mind… like those little cartoon birds that were in Mary Poppins.

I’ve been through some fairly hard stuff in my short 23-year-old life. At times I felt as if the things I was going through were much too hard to bear. It felt as if my life was a rickedy old house built upon a fountation of sand. I assumed people were out to get me, that I was a failure to the core, and that I’d never see the beauty of a sunset ever again. Most importantly, I assumed God had abandoned me. The Creator of the universe, the One who promised to “never leave me, nor forsake me,” felt utterly absent from my life. After coming through those hard “valley” times, I’ve realized one single truth: I was WRONG. I wrong about people’s view of me. I was wrong about my assessments of situations I was in… But, I was also wrong about God’s apparent disappearance from my life.

I just got done reading Job, in the old testament, the other day. It was hardcore good reading. I think I read it in 2 hours or so. Pretty awesome, and I think you should read it. It’s funny how Job was a dude who had the best of everything. He loved God, and indeed God had blessed him with everything he had. One day, Satan comes to God (like a punk… becasue he is one), and is all like, “Hey God, your servant Job serves you only becasue Your his sugar-daddy. Take away everything he has, and ten bucks says he’ll curse you!” So God allows Satan to strip-away Job stuff. To Satan’s amazement, Job still praises God. In Job’s suffering, his friends come to him and basically tell him, “Your suffering is because of sin! Repent!” But as many of you know, Job never did anything to merit this sufferning. At the same time, Job still demanded information from God. Elevating himself to a level he shouldn’t have. God lays down some heavy stuff for Job to stomach, but I’ll get to that in a second.

The moral of this story? Well, it could be multiple things… but, I’ll just highlight two things: Suffering and reverence. I just heard a good friend of mine give a message about these two things just last week. Just becasue you’re suffering DOES NOT mean it is becasue you did something wrong. Allow me to explain if I may. Say you want to get into shape. So, you pick up some 5lb weights and begin doing arm curls. Now, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to tell that if you want to get definition in your arms, 5lbs won’t cut it. I am sure we would all agree that if you want to see results, resistance is the “golden key.” Why is it that we pray these prayers like, “Oh, God! Make me more like you! I want to be stronger! I want to love more, I want to encourage more”, and then wonder why things get harder. We automatically think something is wrong, and pray for God to remove our “cup of suffering.” You know what I say? Dig in! We prayed for it, and the only way to get healthy and more fit is to embrace the pain you experience in exercising your body. It’s no different in our relationship with the Creator of the Universe.

The second “moral of the story” is a tougher one to swallow: reverence. Job lays down some statements about God that aren’t true. Like, “I cry out to God and He doesn’t answer me,” and “You don’t bother to look. You have become cruel to me.” One would think that after analyzing Job situation, Job would be right. Well, he isn’t. In the 38th chapter of Job, the apparently “silent” God speaks up with a roaring, thunderous voice. “Where were YOU when I laid the foundations of the earth?” And so begins the mighty response of God. You guys, one of the biggest things for me right now, aside from the whole “dig in” thing, is this: give God back the reverence He deserves. So much of my life and my relationship with Him has been a matter of PREFERANCE. I say, “Take my life,” and so quickly take it back. I say “Use me and all that I have,” yet, I so quickly hoard my possessions and the blessings He has given me. I cry out, “Mold me and transform me, and help me to find security in You alone!” Yet, every prayer after that is based upon wanting security in money, wanting God to give to me out of my lust for things.

My challenge to the Body (myself included), give God the glory He deserves. If you have a Bible, read Job 38-42:5(I’m serious, read it. You won’t regret it!)… and tremble at who God is and who He will always be. These words sting me everytime I read them, reminding me that I’m not the man I was, but I’m not the man I’ll be. Be blessed, you guys!