When I finally get to heaven, I want to meet Job—hands down, one of the most flat-out amazing examples of a good man who chose to see God first and his problems second. Oftentimes, I approach God through my problems; which means my ability to see and hear him gets mighty murky. Job’s way is better.

Within a short time, the poor man lost everything that defined his life…wealth, all 10 of his adult children, and finally his personal health. He was blindsided; his good life totally upended through absolutely no fault of his own.

But his immediate response was amazing: he tore his robe in grief; then fell to the ground, and worshiped God.

He said,

“I came naked from my mother’s womb,

and I will be naked when I leave.

The LORD gave me what I had,

and the LORD has taken it away.

Praise the name of the LORD!”

Job 1:21

Sometime later, Job’s friend, obviously not a trained grief counselor or encourager, had the audacity to say that the kids had been killed as punishment for their sins. It would have been hard for me  not to haul off and wallop that friend, or at least, as our family used to say, “pop ‘em with your mouth”.

But all the while, so many important—yet invisible—things were happening in a different realm, away from the earthly stage; things that if known, would have dragged clear understanding of the tragedies out into the open.

Satan was behind the scenes, skulking around God’s heavenly court—just begging God’s permission to “prove” that Job had a price; and could be beaten and broken to the point where he’d finally curse God to His face.

But God knew his man better than Satan did.

And it’s absolutely the same today; our lives get turned completely upside down—very often through no fault of our own—and there are no logical earthly ways to make sense of it all.

But I stand firm, beyond any shadow of any doubt, that God’s still in charge—whether it’s on or off the earthly stage—He’s still got it.