Then, the Lord asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil.” (Job 1:8)

God offers Job up to Satan for testing. The indescribable trauma that Job endures is not a punishment for sin, but recognition of His righteousness. God Himself – omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient – describes Job as “the finest man in all the earth.” It is the compliment to end all compliments. Job is living his life, being a good person, then encounters pain because God wants to show him off to heaven, hell, and earth. God trusts Job to remain faithful while enduring tragedy. So, it begs the question – what if the pain you are experiencing is God’s bragging on you to heaven, hell, and earth as well? What if God has allowed you to endure pain because He trusts you, too, to remain faithful in the midst of it? 

This reflection comes as, night after night, I am experiencing unreasonable, almost inexplicable, crashes to this blog site (call it user error if you want but I don’t personally think all of the issues can be chalked up to that). I rebuild whatever went awry, then something happens that costs me hours of work. I push through, stick with it, rebuild, only to have the same happen. This is no way comparable to Job’s pain – not in the slightest, but I feel heaven used it as a nudge to make me dig deeper. The first time it happened, I was flippant with God: “I’m doing this for You. I’m trying to get this site up to witness for You. Why are you letting these issues happen?” Something along those lines. The guilt quickly followed, so the next time I experienced issues with the site, I was resolute to have a more faithful response clothed in perseverance. More issues followed, but I noticed that with those issues came in me a stronger desire and pleasure for working on the site, as well as some wisdom: what if God is telling the devil, “Just watch. She won’t give up on the site. She’s going to keep pushing on because her heart desires to glorify Me and encourage others.” When heaven impressed that thought upon me, it gave me the fuel I needed to keep going. What if God is bragging on little ol’ me? 

What if He’s bragging on you too? Keep pushing.

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The indescribable trauma that Job endures is not a punishment for sin, but recognition of His righteousness.