Unearned Luck

Photo by Jean-Philippe Delberghe on Unsplash Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish, and strengthen you. -1 Peter 5:8-10 The LORD said to Satan, "Whence have you come?" Satan answered the LORD, "From going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down on it." And the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?" Then Satan answered the LORD, "Does Job fear God for nought?...touch all that he has, and he will curse thee to thy face." -Job 1:7-11 St. Pe...

"Then Job arose, and rent his robes, and shaved his head, and fell upon the ground, and worshiped. And he said, 'Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I shall return; the L ORD gave, and the L ORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the L ORD .'"    -Job 1:20-21 "'Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on....[D]o not be anxious...[Y]our heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.'"    -St. Matthew 6:25a, 31a, 32b, 33 Recently, I read through the Book of Job again. I had forgotten how beautiful a text it is, and in its beauty is its inspiration. From the account of Job offering sacrifice daily for the sanctity of his children to the description of God holding court and His interaction with Satan to God's own testimony to His infi...