Giving Up

There comes a time when we are ready to go.

My face is red with weeping, and deep darkness is on my eyelids, though there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure. "O earth, do not cover my blood; let my outcry find no resting place. Even now, in fact, my witness is in heaven, and he that vouches for me is on high. My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God, that he would maintain the right of a mortal with God, as one does for a neighbor. For when a few years have come, I shall go the way from which I shall not return. My spirit is broken, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me. If I look for Sheol as my house, if I spread my couch in darkness, if I say to the Pit, 'You are my father,' and to the worm, 'My mother,' or 'My sister,' where then is my hope? Who will see my hope? Will it go down to the bars of Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust?" - Job 16:16-22,17:1,13-16

Job sounds like he is ready to go, but he is not really.

He pleads to God for an answer, a reason for his suffering. He is just using these words of despair to get God's attention.

For most of us, no matter when the time comes, it is too soon. We are not ready. We want another day, another hour, another minute.

I like to think that in those final minutes, God sends an angel to be with us, to show us that we do not need to fear, to guide us through the curtain and take us home.

In that sense, we are not giving up, like Job, but giving in.

There may be times when we say we are ready. Like Job, we may be saying this out of despair. Like children seeking a parent's attention, we may be looking for God to show us we have more to live for.

Of course, God knows our true intentions. He will respond to Job and let Job know God is always in control, not Job, not us.

Whenever it comes, it is too soon. But if we truly believe, it is just the beginning and not the end.

More to come...