Last Tuesday and Wednesday will be etched in our memory as the days Los Angeles burned.  Thousands of homes have been burned to the ground and thousands of people are without shelters.  In one day, their lives were upended; they were robbed of their belongings and left without certainty about the future.  Even though we always knew that all that we had were temporal and could be taken away but when we were faced with that stark reality, we still cringe. What happened this week serves as a warning that it could be us. The massive devastation that we saw “there” could also happen “here.”

In the Bible we know of Job who lost not only all his belongings and his children but also his health. The truth is he also lost his wife who out of bitterness toward God asked him to “curse God and die.” And do not forget, he too lost his best friends who put the blame on him squarely for the calamity he suffered.  Job had to face this massive adversity all alone.  Even God had turned His back on him, at least that’s what he initially thought.  But no, God never did; He was with Job all the way.  He entertained Job’s anger and disappointment; He understood and welcomed Job’s bitterness.  But at the end, He had to tell Job that no, he did not have everything figured out. He is a lot bigger than the calamity Job suffered; God asked Job to trust Him.

This is what God asks us to do in times like these: to trust Him.  We do not have everything figured out both now and then.  So, do not try to have everything figured out; live by faith not by sight; trust Him and acknowledge Him in all our ways, “and He shall direct our paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).  If the little fire we see on the stove can turn into a massive blaze that engulfs the whole house, God can use every little thing to turn our lives around.  As He was with Job, He’s now with us.  As He was in the boat with the disciples during the storm, He’s with us in our boats facing the biggest storms of our life.

Pastor Paul