Oh, Job, how did you do it?

Oh, Job, how did you do it?

Did you ever have a moment where someone very wise said, "well, God must have a better plan" and you said, "Well, I think God's plan is stupid!!!" And some little voice from the back of the van says, "Mom, we don't say 'stupid.'" oh, right... "Well, I think His plan is just ... (stifled grumble of words you're unable to say) ... silly!"

Ever experience something like that?  Well, that was me on Sunday.  And what was the 1st reading at Mass about, but trusting God even if we don't understand His plans.  Nice.  phoey!  This still ain't no kind of fun!

And what was this morning prayer's reading (from the divine office - there is a FANTASTIC app btw for the divine office - it has audio! beautiful hymns and prayers read out loud to you - LOVE it. I got the iPhone at first just for that app! Thanks to my dad's recommendation of the app - hi, dad, if you're reading this!)... anyway, the reading?  Here it is:

READING Job 1:21; 2:10b

Naked I came forth from my mother's womb,

and naked I shall go back again.

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;

blessed be the name of the Lord!

We accept good things from God;

and should we not accept evil?"

I want to be like "NO, WE SHOULD NOT!"  But then I had a 2nd take.  I thought of God's plan in our life.  There are so many instances, but here are a few.

- Peter took his junior year in college abroad in Belgium and when he came back to UST, they only accepted half the credits and so he wasn't able to graduate on time.  He was aggravated and disappointed, but then saw the Rome program and decided if he had to spend another semester in college, he might as well spend it in Rome.  I was also on that Rome program.  We fell in love in the eternal city - that semester.  It never would have happened without the disappointment of the university not accepting his credits.

Here are Peter and I in December 1999, during the semester in Rome when we first started dating.  Don't we look cute? (And young! sheesh! I'm getting old...)

- When Peter and I got engaged, I had chosen to leave a christian community I was involved in to work more directly within the Catholic Church,but I had no idea what that meant.  My prayer time normally a source of consolation became a desert - dry, barren and lonely.  For months, I just went through the motions, so full of doubt, so full of feelings of confusion.  But then, the following March, we were at our holy hour together and at the same moment I realized we needed to go back to Rome to study I was flooded with consolation.  It was so intense (especially compared to the 10 month desert I had been enduring) that there was no doubting it was God's will.  Had I not gone through the desert, it would not have been that clear and something as crazy as moving across the ocean would probably have been doubted and rethought.  But it was crystal clear and we followed through, God opening every door along the way.

Pete and I in Siena, Italy during during the month we house sat for my cousins in Florence. (Hi, Alsups, if you're reading this!)

Because we DID follow that moment of inspiration/ consolation, we had the very great BLESSING of having our marriage blessed by Pope John Paul II!  God is so good! (And how fun to get to where your wedding gown again!)

- Fast forward to when we moved back to Minnesota three years ago.  After 7 years of living in other places, we had finally gotten back to my hometown of New Orleans.  When we began debating the offer to move north, I was so frustrated.  We finally finally! got back to my home and now we are going to leave it again? Why, God, why?!  Yet, I knew it was God calling, so we moved.  Little did we know that not only having a job in the exact field we wanted, but moving north was the key to healing our Louis.  Louis suffers with an extremely rare condition, which had been mis-diagnosed up til that point.  He was still having nighttime vomiting 3-4 nights a week from 2 am - 9 am, constant hives, stunted growth, and the medications the doctors in New Orleans gave him did not seem to be helping much.  When we moved north, we switched his care to Mayo Clinic and they finally diagnosed him correctly.  He got the correct medication (a daily injection) and can actually begin to live a life of thriving instead of just surviving.  If we hadn't followed God's prompting to move north due to my desire to stay close to my family, Louis would still be dealing with extreme daily suffering.

Louis holding his baby brother Damian.

- And finally, our home.  We were ready to place offers on three other houses and each time someone beat us to it.  It was frustrating and disheartening.  Finally, we found this place and within two weeks, we had bought it!  As we look back, all of the other properties paled in comparison to this one and this was the least expensive.  Despite our lack of foresight, God did know what He was doing!

Our beautiful country home!

So, I come back to present day.  Okay, okay, I get it.  Your ways, Lord, are not our ways.  And I don't understand the "why" and I'm not that great at accepting it, but give me the grace to accept it Lord, so that we may also cry out with great faith another verse from the Book of Job:

“As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,

And at the last He will take His stand on the earth." (Job 19:25)