A lane-wide clearing wound miles through dense woods to my destination. Reaching 30mph on obviously-not-maintained-by-county caliche was challenge enough for me. To my right, 3 whitetails glided through the autumn-browning olive green bramble of briar, brush, and branch, easily pacing my car. I can’t walk slowly and deliberately through rooms where I placed the furniture without stubbing my toe, and these 3 does are flying touch-and-goes at 30 foot intervals unfazed by the web of fence and vegetation which would be all but impenetrable to me.
The challenges most of us face every day can appear impassible. Exuding confidence, some bull through fine china; lacking it, others play possum. Given Bildad’s deprecation of humanity in general, or Paul’s of himself specifically, the latter option might seem wiser.
Bildad: “How then can man be in the right before God? How can he who is born of woman be pure? Behold, even the moon is not bright, and the stars are not pure in his eyes; how much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of man, who is a worm!”
Paul: “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”
But God restores Job despite his friends’ sobering observations. And Paul adds to his self-disdain: “I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.”
Confident in God, our hooves bound and pivot from bush and barbed-wire tangles confidence in self would never escape.
This week, may the trudging world see the beauty of our bounding confidence in Him.