Read today’s texts first: Job 17; Acts 24-26
It’s always best to look up during down times. What comes down must go up through prayers and thanksgiving.
Both Job and Paul in our readings today are experiencing some unusual down time. Job is incapacitated through severe sickness; Paul is in custody in Caesarea. Both were highly active and excited about their lives before this. Now they are both sitting, suffering and possibly awaiting death - definitely “down” times!
I don’t want to be critical of Job (his three friends did enough of that). I can’t even imagine what he went through or how I would respond in that situation. It would be hard not to feel sorry for yourself and spend your down time complaining, which is essentially what Job did.
Paul, on the other hand, went from a busy life of travelling and teaching to forced confinement and the constant threat of execution. This would be his life for the next several years, custody in Caesarea and Rome, occasional appearances to offer a defense, interspersed with a whole lot of down time. He too must have been tempted to feel sorry for himself and complain about a life of suffering he certainly didn’t deserve.
And yet, from what we can piece together from what he wrote and what others wrote about him, this didn’t happen. He seized every opportunity to testify about Jesus to those in authority and seemed to enjoy those moments (24:10-21; 24-26; 25:8-11; 26:2-29). Later, he would use his down time to write letters (the Prison Epistles) and encourage the churches he had planted. Whenever he referred to his imprisonment he seemed to be thankful (Philippians 1:12-18).
Paul recognized that even in the down times, God was there and He had a plan. “Lord, I pray that I would learn to have that kind of attitude whenever I experience some down time. Instead of complaining, I will thank You for the opportunity to spend more time with my wife, with my family, and with You in Your Word.”
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