(I'm planning on doing more than one of these between now and Easter, hence the name)
I came across the following text (literally, opened the Scripture book to no page in particular) last night right before going to bed:
And the Lord said to Job: "Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? ... Gird up your loins like a man; I will question you, and you declare to me. Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be justified? Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his? Deck yourself with majesty and dignity; clothe yourself with glory and splendor. Pour out the overflowings of your anger, and look on all who are proud, and abase them. Look on all who are proud, and bring them low; tread down the wicked where they stand. Hide them all in the dust together; bind their faces in the world below. Then I will also acknowledge to you that your own right hand can give you victory. (Job 40:1-2, 7-14)
It goes on like this, of course, but what I took away was the necessity to have humility sometimes. As frustrated human beings, we sometimes have the tendency to blame things (and if we believe in God, we often blame him for things). I know; I've been guilty of that quite a few times in my life. But looking back at several things that have happened--my car crash, my personal exile from the church I grew up in, the few times I've witnessed the Cubs die at the end of the season, several other things--good things have come out of it, and in this discovery I realized it was silly for me to blame God for these things. I wrote a post [“http://n8daoggblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/wake-up-call.html”] on my reflections after hearing this passage in church one Sunday a few years back, and even though I acknowledged that it would be wrong to challenge God on His plans for my life, I barely had the faculties to understand why. In spite of my limited human understanding, I have a better idea now, and it's one with which I can be at peace. It all goes back to the need for self-humility. It's what makes my relationship with God strong (or, at least, not abominably weak).
Yeah... I kinda need to get my Lenten thing back on track. I did quite a bit of reading that first half-week of Lent, then dropped off the last week. Hopefully this will lead into a more positive spiritual turnaround.