Job Of This Age
Like a limb, a branch of a tree is cut off. But the tree doesn’t die, except it’s growing many new fresh branches out of it. Cut these new branches again and again, still many more new branches are sprouting without end.
I remember some one whose house was burned down and had lost all his possessions like in the story of Job who also lost his by catastrophe. He also crept slowly from down below and build himself a new, larger, stronger and better house than before and his business too flourished and improved.
I imagine some Job living in this age saying: “Suppose I lost my riches, my business went bankrupt and was deprived of my official duties. Why worry? Just with a little bit of extra exertion, effort, using my mind, I can rebuild, recover them again.”
Take his sight and he will say: “I will learn to see with my fingers and hearing. My inner eye is still sharp, and living in an inner world as bright as daylight I store my inner riches, which doesn’t need any room, any place, can’t be stolen, nor robbed without having to keep them in a save or in a bank.”
Make him sick and he speaks: “Thanks to my asthma, rheumatism, having an inherited proneness towards diabetes for instance, I will be conscious what it does mean to be healthy.
To recover from these illnesses, I readily practice the physical health exercises, and unknowingly will I recover, improve my health to above the normal level. I now am doing my daily activities such as working, studying, exercising my eyes, my voice, watching TV, eating, drinking and even sleeping like something to enjoy.
When all my friends leave me, my children and even my wife, there’s still my dog. He is the last one who ever will be leaving me and that only if he has the heart to do so. More over, even when I chased him away he still would return, though without having to take recourse to oaths of faithfulness.”
Well! Have him face a thousand and one difficulties, deceit, block, ruin him, he never loses his wits and never surrenders. Job is like that branch that was cut off and endlessly is growing many more new branches, as trodden grass that will rise and rise again.
So why worry when people (at that time) were crying anxiously: “We are facing an economic disaster, catastrophe, hyper inflation, political instability,… Well, we‘ll say with Job who still smiles: “Why worry? The world isn’t collapsing. Why surrender?”
From Jayakarta, April 1, 1998
Like a limb, a branch of a tree is cut off. But the tree doesn’t die, except it’s growing many new fresh branches out of it. Cut these new branches again and again, still many more new branches are sprouting without end.
I remember some one whose house was burned down and had lost all his possessions like in the story of Job who also lost his by catastrophe. He also crept slowly from down below and build himself a new, larger, stronger and better house than before and his business too flourished and improved.
I imagine some Job living in this age saying: “Suppose I lost my riches, my business went bankrupt and was deprived of my official duties. Why worry? Just with a little bit of extra exertion, effort, using my mind, I can rebuild, recover them again.”
Take his sight and he will say: “I will learn to see with my fingers and hearing. My inner eye is still sharp, and living in an inner world as bright as daylight I store my inner riches, which doesn’t need any room, any place, can’t be stolen, nor robbed without having to keep them in a save or in a bank.”
Make him sick and he speaks: “Thanks to my asthma, rheumatism, having an inherited proneness towards diabetes for instance, I will be conscious what it does mean to be healthy.
To recover from these illnesses, I readily practice the physical health exercises, and unknowingly will I recover, improve my health to above the normal level. I now am doing my daily activities such as working, studying, exercising my eyes, my voice, watching TV, eating, drinking and even sleeping like something to enjoy.
When all my friends leave me, my children and even my wife, there’s still my dog. He is the last one who ever will be leaving me and that only if he has the heart to do so. More over, even when I chased him away he still would return, though without having to take recourse to oaths of faithfulness.”
Well! Have him face a thousand and one difficulties, deceit, block, ruin him, he never loses his wits and never surrenders. Job is like that branch that was cut off and endlessly is growing many more new branches, as trodden grass that will rise and rise again.
So why worry when people (at that time) were crying anxiously: “We are facing an economic disaster, catastrophe, hyper inflation, political instability,… Well, we‘ll say with Job who still smiles: “Why worry? The world isn’t collapsing. Why surrender?”
From Jayakarta, April 1, 1998
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