Jesus, the Rock

If you missed last month’s post, you might want to go back and read it before reading this one; otherwise, this one might be difficult to follow. 

Days after the flood, I had no idea my search for answers would lead to my journey through Job, Ecclesiastes, and Habakkuk. I have been deep-diving into these books, searching for the answer to “why.” Yet I feel like Tony Evans explains what I learned from the books best when he writes, “When you realize that he is omniscient (all knowing), omnipotent (all powerful), and holy (perfectly righteous in all he does), then you’ll realize he knows how to run things better than we do.”¹ In other words, the world isn’t mine to run (thankfully), and it isn’t mine to analyze the whys of either.

The most beautiful part of the Book of Job happens near the end when God takes His turn and responds to Job. God never justifies Himself nor answers any of Job’s questions directly. Instead, God questions Job if he has ever created an earth, hung planets, or strategically placed stars. He questions Job’s skills in more than just these areas, yet the point God is making to Job involves authority. What authority does Job have to question anything God does? Wow. Job cannot answer God. Instead, Job realizes how much he has been in the wrong and Who he has petitioned to speak with.

Questioning God has been my number one connection to Job. In times of trials, my finite mind wants me to believe I’m in control, that my plans are the best, and that I’m worthy of being heard. I’m worthy of nothing. God gives me His grace and allows me to converse with Him because He loves me. It’s not because I deserve it, and it’s certainly not because I’m smarter than Him.  

However, this search has allowed me to discover the reasons behind my desire to know why the flood came. They stem from losing a student to the flood and my beloved mountains turning on me.

Two and a half years ago, a young man walked through the doors of my school. He had only been in America for a few days and spoke no English, and they put him in my group. Poor kid! We taught him two words that day: bathroom and rock. It was sixth-grade orientation, and we were going on two field trips. One was to Mayland Community College for STEM activities and then to Gem Mountain to mine rocks. This little fella was absolutely smitten with mining and digging rocks out of dirt. I’ve been mining many times with the schools, but this trip will be the one I will never forget because of this student and the impact he had on me. 

When I learned his whole family had perished in the flood, I was heartbroken, and I had questions. This student came as a refugee from another country. The day he arrived at my school, he wore shorts, and I couldn’t help but notice the bruising on his legs. All I could think about was what he had been through getting to Burnsville. 

Time passed, and I had him in seventh grade for language arts. It turns out he was a superstar in the science area, but reading was something he wished had never existed. 😂 We butted heads a few times because I wanted the absolute best for him. I wanted to move mountains to ensure he got the best education ever. Hindsight being 20/20, I just wished I’d let him be a kid who hated reading instead of pushing him to be better. 

I’ve struggled trying to reason why my former student died. What had he ever done to deserve such a hard life that ended so quickly? Job, Soloman (the suspected author of Ecc.), and Habakkuk struggled with the same finite mindset I’ve been dealing with: righteous people shouldn’t suffer, and wicked people should. Who am I to say who is righteous and who is evil? What authority do I have to decide that? My focus during the trial failed and fell away from the One I should have focused on to the disaster surrounding me.

The disaster I saw everywhere took root in my mind and heart. I looked at the beautiful mountains that had been my refuge and protector differently. I was mad at them. I didn’t want to see the beauty they had to offer in shades of red, orange, and yellow. I didn’t want to take any pictures of them anymore. I wanted to punish them because they broke my heart and caused me to have fear. I never expected them to move in the way they did, nor did I expect them to literally come down. But they did. 

I must admit I have felt a scolding from God. I misused my relationship with Him, and in doing so, I lost the reverence needed to stand amid someone who is Sovereign. I believe God wants us to approach Him as a father figure, seeking to learn from Him and please Him. He expects us to converse with Him and ask Him for clarity. In fact, I would have never learned from Job, Ecclesiastes, and Habakkuk as I have if I hadn’t been on a learning and seeking journey. 

However, my initial conversation on day one of the flood did not begin with learning and seeking. It started just like Job’s did because I wanted to plead the case of all the people here who were hurt physically and emotionally. The flood has never been mine to understand if it came from God or if God allowed it to come from Satan. What is mine to understand completely is that God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. He has been and always will be in control of this world, and my faith and trust MUST be in Him whether or not I understand something.  

My church is about forty minutes from my house, but it was nearly two hours away because of the flood damage. So, I went to church at Laural Branch Baptist the second Sunday after the flood. Like most visitors, I was hanging back and just observing. I was standing below where the yard once was. The sod and soil were gone, and there was nothing left but rock on top of rock. The fella delivering the message that day was a military chaplain. He spoke about how the church was still standing, even with a tour bus sticking in the side, because it was built physically and spiritually on solid rock. 

(One more rock story.) Back in the summer, just weeks before the flood, I walked around the Burnsville Town Square with one of my great nieces. She found a rock with this inspirational quote painted on it, “It’s OK to not be OK.” She brought the rock home and put it on my kitchen counter, having no idea what the rock and its saying would mean to me later. I would look at this rock during the flood days, when everything around me was devastated, and know that it was OK for me to feel the way I was feeling. Looking back, I believe it was OK for me to feel upset but not for me to want justification from God.  
  

I share these stories about these rocks because it has taken me almost nine weeks to see the beauty in the rocks all around me. The rocks my former student adored, the rocks at the church, and the rocks from the Town Square have shown me that my “Rock,” Jesus, never left during the flood. When I needed Him, He was there.  

I now know why God pulled me to read Job, Ecclesiastes, and Habakkuk. At the beginning of the flood, I pursued hope, which is one of the philosophies prevalent in the book of Job. Then, in Ecclesiastes, one of the philosophies prevalent is the search for God. I was searching for hope in God, and my lack of focus prevented me from seeing He was already here. God reminded me through Job, Ecclesiastes, and the rocks that He never left. He wasn’t surprised by the flood. He knew it would happen on Sept. 27, 2024, many years ago. During the “storm” God didn’t change… I did. Instead of my focus being stronger on God, it fell away allowing me to think I was in charge. I forgot that it is, “only through Christ that I can do all things.”² 

Thank you for reading FrontPorchCoffeeBlog! I pray you have felt the Spirit of God inside you this holiday season and have experienced wonderful times with your families. I know I have enjoyed time with my family so much this year. When I was a little girl, I wanted a family so badly, and God has given me everything I ever dreamed of in that request. To Him, I give all the glory and thanks for it. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

1. Tony Evans, Tony Evans Bible Commentary (2020), 828.
2. The Bible, Philippians 4:13.