🦁 Lent 1-6

Readings: Psalm 77; Job 5:8-27; 1 Peter 3:8-18a

Reflection

Good morning. This is Tim Trouble, broadcasting from Sacramento, California. Today's readings come to us from Psalm 77. Joan Chapter five, verses 8 to 27. And first, Peter, chapter three, verses 8 to 18. A We're revisiting Psalm 77 again. And I'd like to point out in verses 11 and 12, I think this is somewhere we as humans kind of take a side rail as we forget the good things. We forget sometimes when things don't go our way or we get what we want or things seem bad. That, I guess, is verse 11. I will remember the deeds of Lord. Yes, I'll remember your deeds of all. I will ponder all your work and meditate on your mighty deeds. Sometimes we need to kind of break that mental cycle of, you know, woe is me and think about all the things, the good things that have happened, you know, the power of positive thinking, if you will. But then this gives reply. These are things that God has done for us where God has guided us, protected us, helped us out. And that's really, really important to remember that, because just because things aren't going the way we think they should or the timelines or whatever, that we, we as human beings are imposing on things. God does things in his way, in his time. And sometimes we need to. I know for myself that I'm not a patient person, so it's a real struggle to remember that God's doing things the way God wants them done and what is best for us. And I'm reading today from Jobe, it's up, you know, 19 verses long, one. Again, we're going back to what was Jobe. And, you know, there's this whole story. And Jobe suffered all these things, lost everything very well. Longfellow, family money, all that type of stuff. Lost everything to the point that the dogs were looking the boils on his body. And it's important that we remember not to assign our human traits. As I grew up in the narrative of Jobe was always about God testing jobs, faith and God allowed Satan to screw with Jobe and do all this because Jobe would blaspheming God and the devil would have won and all this stuff. And there's a different view on this and a different theology has come out. There's the fact that sometimes bad things happen to good people. And this is a real important thing to remember. There's a a whole line that goes along, the whole we have this thing of things happen, right? And we don't always have an explanation. Life is this thing. 

That's the way life is. And it's difficult. It really is. 

There's a very popular book, which I highly recommend is written by Rabbi Harold Kushner. When bad things happen to good people and this is a why God allowed this to happen, why why did God do this to me? We always we always have that one, too. And it's something that in the reading with Jobe, look at things in a different light and just look at things. Understand that bad things happen to good people. We can do everything right. We can do everything the way it's supposed to be. And we will still have a was an optimal outcome. That's life. And that is the way that it is. And sometimes suffering. One of the things we talk about when when I'm talking with veterans, the first responders about mental health issues and feeling the stress and think it's a whole different vibe when you're talking to someone who's worked on the streets, who's been to basic training, who's been on the front line, who stood in the breach, then having someone who's never done anything preached here. 

My, my, my two catchphrases everybody gets me is told me I have it is I get it. And I got you. 

And that's a very powerful thing to be able to do and to help someone. Think about when we're talking about Jobe and and or just in our own lives when you know I did, I did this, this and this. I didn't. This didn't happen. It should happen. Why did and what did I do wrong? You know, we get in this whole cycle of blaming and it leads to anger. And it was ourselves that others had brought up. So, you know, the step back suffering allows us to be able to relate to a situation and to work through and live through a situation that we can turn around when we're on the other side or even if we're not all the way on the other side. But we can turn around and extend that hand and be the one who reaches out to someone else who's doing it, going through something somewhere and say, Hey, I get it, I got you. Our reading it first, Peter today. Very, very similar line. So this is title Suffering for righteousness sake. This is another tough one. How many times have we not stood up and said, this is wrong? 

How many times have we let something slide by? Because we were concerned about the repercussions? 

I have. And it is it's very, very difficult to stand up for what is right to do what Jesus said asked us to do and love our neighbors as ourselves. And we turn here. Christ died on the cross. He was beaten to a bloody pulp. He was spit on, He was defamed, defiled. And they did horrible things to him before they hung him on the cross. Not to mention all the games and stupid crap that they did during his ministry, trying to trip them up and play all these, you know, games with him. And we talked about the other day, you know, why is he hanging out with the bad with all these lovely people? Because that's what we're supposed to be. That's what we're supposed to do. We look out for those who can't look after themselves. We minister, and we reach out to those who cannot help themselves. 

Christ suffered once for our sins, for the righteous, for the unrighteous that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, me to alive in the Spirit. 

Sometimes we have to endure things because it is the right thing to do. 

I was raised my my father especially was not big and saying thank you to me because I was expected to do that. You're doing what you're expected to do. You do what you do, what needs to be done. You do what is expected of you. You do what is right, because that is the right thing to do, not because you are looking for praise or whatever. Well, it also falls into those. We do that statement to do what's right because it's right. And, you know, if we suffer for it, if something bad happens, that's the way it is. 

I had a friend who lost a job, very prominent because he did not do what a political appointee told him to do because it wasn't right. And he took that stand. Yeah, he lost his job. They ran him out. He wound up in a better place and had a in my opinion, I'm sure he would agree to a much better working environment the last ten or 15 years of his career. Then you had if he'd stayed where he was out, even though he, you know, lost his job and had, you know, and went through all this this this stress because this political appointee wanted to get out of them. So think about that, doing what is right because it is right and sometimes we will suffer for it. But it is all done to the glory of God. Amen.