How Do You Respond When Everything Crumbles Before Your Eyes

How do you respond when everyone you cherish, when all you worked hard to build, and when all your resources crumble before your eyes? Do you despair? Do you weep in grief? What is your initial reaction? Do you doubt God? Do you fall into a state of shock? How do you or how would you respond to the rug being pulled out from underneath the world you have labored to build? How does or how should a person react when the walls come tumbling down of everything that is or was important?

Do you worship? Do you bow down and give homage to God in the worst cascading circumstances you can imagine? That is exactly what Job did after learning about the loss of his possessions, his servants, and his ten children. His initial reaction was worship. Read it for yourself. Job 1:20 (NASB) 
²⁰  Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped.

Yes he grieved. Yes he felt intense sorrow. Yet in the midst of such gut wrenching pain he still chose worship. The word worship means to bow down, to prostate, to pay homage. I have not worshiped in far less troubling circumstances. My initial reactions many times have been frustration, pouting, depression, despair, doubt, anger, impatience, grumbling, worry, discontent, and not worship. 

I read this passage this weekend. The weight of it stuck to my soul. I am still chewing on it. How do you get to the point where you love God so much, you trust Him so much, you revere Him so much you choose the path of worship instead of worry. I need to get there. I want to get there. 

Job felt pain. He did not fake it. He grieved and as we read  the rest of Job we know he struggled. He suffered. Yet he worshipped. He worshipped in grief and in loss. He recognized the sovereignty and goodness of God at the same time from a place of immense sorrow and suffering. He built his life on the solid foundation of the bedrock of God and His faithfulness. 

It is a place I want to mature to one day. It is a place I need to build the structure of my life. It is the place I want to dwell forever. When everything crumbles, loved ones, health, finances, possessions, friendships, and career I want to choose worship. Only God can being me to that place. Only God can install that mindset and heartbeat in all of us.