21-Day Devotional for Christian WritersНамуна

Everybody knows about Job, although nobody, I don't think, would have liked to be in his shoes. Imagine going through all that suffering and not even knowing why! I can't think of a more frustrating situation for a writer. When it comes to making decisions or an assessment of a situation, the very nature of what we do causes us to question and reflect before arriving at a (supposedly) rational and informed decision. After all, that's what makes us good writers, right? Wrong. First, as today’s verse shows, we are humans, and as such should not expect to have all the answers. Only One Person does, and sometimes, even He doesn’t tell! In his time, Job was the greatest man ‘among all the people of the East.’ He feared God and was so upright that he would offer sacrifices on behalf of his family, just in case they’d sinned against God, unbeknownst to him. So when the Bible calls him the ‘greatest man among all the people in the East,’ it is not faint praise, indeed. As Christians and as writers, our job is to lead our readers to the Person that does have all the answers: Jesus. Job's life is a reminder of the two-layered world we live in (the spiritual and the physical) and how the two are impacted by each other. Second, his life offers us a glimpse into the workings of heaven itself. It gives a new meaning to the saying, "hardship without revelation." And so it is with us writers. The road to publication is strewn with some hardships, hard lessons, and vicious circles that are seemingly designed to grant us permanent residence at the nearest mental health facility. Like Job, we rant and rave against God and man, but in the end we persevere, because when it comes down to it, there’s just so much we can do with our limited, human, understanding. But one thing is guaranteed: When we get to heaven, all will be made clear.