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Acceptance comes easily, even naturally, when we receive good gifts. Imagine a child at Christmastime joyfully accepting the generous gift of a bicycle. The happiness and excitement are difficult for her to contain. She receives the bicycle with overwhelming gratitude and eagerly sets out cycling to her hearts’ content.
Now imagine the scene where a child receives a not-so-exciting gift like socks and underwear. Acceptance comes begrudgingly, and the gift is received with a lackluster smile and forced gratitude. The socks and underwear are set aside and ignored until perhaps bath-time or bedtime, something else most children reluctantly accept.
I think we’d all agree that both gifts are useful and important. Maybe one is more thrilling than the other, but it doesn’t impact the value of each gift. I’m reminded of Job’s question to his wife in Job 2:10 (NLT), “Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?” Job was willing to accept both good and bad not because he was particularly excited about both but because of his fear of and faith in God. As one commentator put it, Job’s wisdom was not just rooted in his intellect but in his fear (worship) of God.* If we are wise like Job, then our attitude in acceptance shifts from focusing on the gift to instead focusing on the Giver. Then hopefully we can obey Scriptures that command us to rejoice in the bad, difficult, troublesome things that come our way (Matthew 5:12, Romans 5:3-5, Philippians 4:4, James 1:2-4).
Life is full of different kinds of gifts, some exciting and some not, but all useful and valuable when we trust the Lord with them. In the New Testament, James tells us that we should consider Job blessed (happy) for his steadfast faith during both the good and bad times (James 5:11). What are you experiencing today, good or bad or somewhere in between? I pray you can accept it graciously with the wisdom of Job.
*Jane H. Smick, “Job,” in 1 Chronicles-Job, vol. 4 of The Expositor’s Bible Commentary Revised Edition. ed. Tremper Longman III and David E. Garland; Accordance electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), 720.
Think of a time or event in your life that is/was difficult to accept. How can you apply the wisdom of Job in that situation?
Recently, the Lord convicted me of my poor attitude in a situation at church. After months of participating on a committee for youth and children’s discipleship ministries, I recommended some changes to the Sunday morning program for the children. However, it was met with resistance by the other coordinator, so we kept going along as per the usual. Less than 3 months later, she came to me recognizing changes needed to be made and suggested the very things I had said before (without any connection that I had ever recommended the changes myself). My pride was hurt, and I was frustrated for not feeling heard or understood. And then the Holy Spirit tugged at me. I was getting the very thing I wanted. What did it matter how or when it happened or who got the credit for it? With the wisdom of Job and the help of the Spirit, my attitude towards acceptance of this gift shifted to the Giver, causing me to rejoice instead of sulk.