Events, dear boy!

Before I meander off on a few textual cul-de-sacs, I must share with you an amusing quote that caught my eye in a shop outside the church - as follows: "We can't all be stars, but we can twinkle." When I shared this round the supper table last night everyone sniggered, saying "was that twinkle or tinkle?"
So, it's back to the routine of life and the wonderful season of Autumn, though I must admit the build up of paperwork and emails from the summer kind of takes the shine off what should be an enjoyable period.
The year so far for me has just been a really awful one, seemingly of something or other, a difficulty or challenge, being thrown at me. These have not been minor glitches, but the stuff - at least to me, of real deep concern. I'be never had a year like it. Over the summer I decided that I would turn to Job and read his story. It's a pretty depressing account of one man and his family walking righteously before God, and then a correspondence from Satan to God to permit in his sovereign purposes for difficulties to come upon Job to test him. And difficulties come of such a magnitude that Job's life is over turned and is left with nothing, and yet still holds onto God.
Then follows a sequence of conversation with 2 or 3 side kicks of Job who some how taunt, albeit with subtle nuances, that Job should turn away from God. Yet Job partially holds onto his faith in God, and yet wobbles often in his perceptions of Yahweh. The book finishes with God facing up to Job and in his majestic authority questioning Job's right to even challenge why God had acted in the way that he had done. There is this long statement from Yahweh that simply questions Job's right to even be in any position to question why God does what he does. The final piece of text shows that God chooses to again bless Job, and he and his family prospers, but it is abundantly clear that this is not through any effort or achievement of Job, but from the divine and sovereign decision of God. Thus, the overriding strap line of the book of Job is summed up "The Lord gives, the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord."
Now I haven't enjoyed reading Job, yet the objective reflection of the book towards me and my world of difficulties and challenges is that God is sovereign and will bless again. Job is tested and is not perfect, but his faith stays steady through the storms. I am not sure that I can say the same is true of how I react to difficult circumstances. In fact, I'm not even anywhere near Job's sainthood status.
And we are living in really challenging days, and I know that some who read my witterings in this blog are being challenged to the very core of their being. The world is being shaken to its foundations from a financial perspective, and the effect of this is so far reaching into those around us.
There are many things I can say, but I have no desire to sound twee or of that vomitingly annoying Christian world of easy answers. Many if not most situations do not have easy answers. So, I could mention faith, I could talk of keeping your eyes on Jesus and stuff like that, but what I have found is that the testing that I am experiencing is showing up what I lack, and where I am deficient maybe in character. I guess that's why James in his NT book says that the testing of our faith produces perseverance. And as today I step back from the brink, that is where is find myself. Yes, from this objective point, which I have not been able to be in for quite a few months, I can honestly say that the torch light of God has shone into my life through this testing and shown some big voids which need to be strengthened as a soldier of Christ. To see these I need wise and calming people and those who are willing to hold the tiller whilst I flap around. If you are where I am, then I pray that you too will know the God who blesses again, as I pray he will do again for me and my family.