I’m going to tell you without hesitation that one of my major goals in life is to become adult as I age.

A worthy etching on a gravestone would be : “Here lies a person who kept growing as he kept aging.” Growing up and growing old need to stroll hand in hand.

Never doubt it : maturing is a slow, difficult process.

Job accomplished it ; he reached that goal.

No wonder we read that he died an old man and full of days. He lived the remainder of his 140 years full of fervour and zeal. We are able to view it as an intrusion, a concern, or we are able to see it as a chance to reply in particular obedience to God’s will—that craggy virtue James calls “endurance.”. It’s a choice in the middle of our suffering to do what God has asked us to do, whatever it is, and for so long as He asks us to do it.

As Oswald Chambers wrote, “To choose suffering makes little sense at all ; to select God’s will in the middle of our suffering makes all of the sense in the world.”. Where are you today? Where is your journey leading you? More importantly, which option have you chosen? Are you viewing your trial as a concern or an opportunity? Try seriously not to forget the lessons Job teaches us about ourselves. And, rather than simply reading about the life of Job, begin living that sort of life. That makes all of the sense in the world, doesn’t it?