Its the day after the Thanksgiving weekend. We had a wonderful time with friends that came out from California.

A family member here in Arizona has a cousin in Georgia who’s been through a horrible auto accident and is miraculously recovering. She has a long way to go but to call her recovery a miracle is almost not enough. Its simply amazing; you can read about Shea here.

To see the tragedy and the miraculous happen all in the same person has really impacted me as a Christian and shown the reality of God’s sovereignty in a real and practical way.

For the past several months, I’ve been thinking alot of seasons in one’s life. There are good times and bad times. There are hardly ever mediocre times, probably because we think of those times when bad things aren’t happening as good times.

Right now is a very good time for myself and my family. I have a good job that I love, we live in a great house (granted, in a place that we probably won’t stay the rest of our lives, but for the time being its been good), and we are all healthy. Its made me wonder when the bad is coming. It could all end tomorrow. I can’t fathom what Shea’s parents are going through…

The book of Job tells the story of a good man overwhelmed by troubles. He is stripped of his wealth, his family, his health. He does not know why God has done this to him. Only the reader knows that God is trying to prove to the Devil that Job’s faith is genuine. Job rejects his friends who try to connect Job’s sufferings with his sins. Job insists that he is innocent. Eventually, God himself addresses Job. This changes Job’s attitude, for he responds with contrite submission. In the end, God declares Job to be in the right and restores his prosperity and happiness.

The story of Job illustrates that bad and horrible things aren’t necessarily connected to our sins or our “relationship with Jesus”. I think the story of Job, in its more full exposition, is a picture of Christ in the Old Testament, an illustration of the suffering servant. But Job is also a reaching statement of human existence. As the writer of Ecclesiastes says, “Man does not know whether it will be love or hatred; anything awaits him. It is the same for all.”

I don’t know what’s coming around the corner but I do know that, in good times like these, what counts is what you do with what you have. Not everyone gets these less-stressful times; so I see that as an extra special blessing.

We have cried tears of joy and sadness for you Shea. We continue to pray for you.