Gratitude Day 240

Wed., Mar. 27, 2019

Job 35:9 – In times of trouble, everyone begs the mighty God to have mercy.

It takes guts to air our dirty laundry. To admit when troubles consume us. To acknowledge that life is less than grand.

However, I believe this is exactly the reason why Brenda Statz decided to air her dirty laundry. She doesn’t want other families to endure the trouble she’s been living through.

Brenda and her husband, Leon, dairy farmed for years. For a good chunk of those years, Hubby Rick was their milk man. This means Rick arrived at their farm in a truck with a huge tank on the back. He loaded the milk into the tanker and drove it to a plant where it could be processed into dairy products.

After Rick and I became engaged, Rick took a different job. His son, Darran, took over the milk route. Darran hauled milk from the Statz Family Farm the last number of years they milked cows.

The dairy industry has been struggling the last several years. Imagine working at your job for hours and hours every day of the week … and not even covering your costs. This is the reality so many farms are going through right now. This is the reason why Leon and Brenda stopped milking cows.

Without the cows, Leon’s depression exasperated. While he tried various treatment options, eventually, he successfully took his own life.

For more of the story, please watch this video:

Brenda Statz has bravely aired her troubles so that others might find help and resources for family members who are struggling as Leon struggled. She’s trying to take the lemons that are part of her life and somehow make lemonade.

For those who are struggling with troubles in your life, take a look at the Book of Job. Job was a highly successful man. He had a great family, was wealthy and no cares in the world. He was also a devoted follower of God. Satan is granted permission to test Job with the limit of not laying a finger on Job himself. God is confident that Job will endure this test; that Job won’t give up on his faith.

Job looses absolutely everything: his animals and thus his source of income, his children, his home. In the midst of all these troubles, Job says, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”

Wow. Every time I read this story, Job’s unshakable faith humbles me. Even after four of Job’s “good” friends come and try to convince him to forsake God, Job stays true in his faith. Yes, he would like to know why this has happened. But his faith in God never wavers.

Eventually, God comes and dramatically speaks to Job. After a long discourse from God, Job humbly admits to God and his friends, “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.”

When I’m feeling like there are troubles in my life, I’m not so sure that I would quietly say to God and my “good” friends, “Oops. My mistake. I should have never questioned, ‘Why.’ It’s my bad.”

But Job does.

Brenda and anyone else enduring troubles today: it may not be possible to know why these troubles have happened. But I pray that Job will inspire you to keep on keeping with God. It’s easy to turn away from God when we feel like God has let us down. Or impossible to imagine why God intervenes sometimes and seemingly not others. I can’t explain any of these situations. But I do know, as Job knew, God desperately wants to journey with you through your troubles. May you not be or feel alone today.

For a God who never turns away from us, I am grateful.

Holy God – too often, we blame you for our troubles, rather than seeing there really is evil in this world. Too often, we make you the author of everything awful that happens our way. While it is so easy to ask the question, “Why?” may we instead see the “Who?” that journeys with us through our troubles. Amen.

Blessings –

Dianne

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