Fear God for nothing?

This morning, I need to be doing my last minute things--printing handouts, making those final annotations for a Sophomore discussion of Jubilee, planning English 9 after three days of writing (where to go. where to go.), and of course, figure out just what I'm going to do with American Lit.

On Monday, the semi-standing walls I built around the Am. Lit. structure fell apart. Students were overloaded, not sure where to go, wanted less homework, wanted less of everything (but that case didn't last long). Yesterday went okay. Today, things may fall apart, and that's not okay. But maybe it has to happen.

This morning I read in Job. Yes, where else do we go when our most reliable resources in life fall down and shatter around us?

And I was struck by what was said: "Does Job fear God for nothing?" Those words spoken, of course, by Satan. And I wonder the same. Do I fear God for nothing, and so my faith comes easy? When I get the stink-eye from a couple guys wondering if I'll really follow through with what I say, I realize that I fear God for the fact that when my biggest stabilities (a working, breathing, growing classroom) is stripped from under me, He is still the rock.

God is comfort, but he's not a teddy bear; God is love, but he's not a boyfriend; God is peace, patience, kindness, but he's not an Oprah talk show.

This week and beyond, when all my walls and foundations are tumbling down, I need to learn to fear God. As a country and as a people on earth, we must learn to quit looking at God and talking to God and talking about God as though he is the little pleasure-filled things built only around our happiness.

Lord, take those stupid foundations, tear them down, rip them right out from under me, and replenish emptiness with Christ.

Fear the Lord for the fact that he is God.