I was listening to Jim Rohn the other day. He was sharing a great Bible story about Job (pronounced JOHB). I have never read the Bible, though I am reading it now, so I listened eagerly to this story. I wasn’t quite sure where Mr. Rohn was going with the story, but the meaning he shared really put a light on life and happiness. I thought it would be great to share with you. Here’s the story…
The Story
Job was one of God’s favorite people. God had a protective wall up around Job so that Satan couldn’t get to him. This angered Satan, so Satan challenged God. He said that if God would take down his wall of protection from around Job, in a short time, Job would curse God. God said it would never happen, not in a hundred years. Satan asked how they would ever know. Satan asked God to make a wager. The details of the wager were not shared, but the storyteller says God picked up the bet.
So, God takes the wall down and Satan does one of his all-time favorite tricks. He strips Job of all his wealth. Satan said, this is where he’ll curse you. But it didn’t happen. Satan then took Job’s health. Satan thought now, certainly, Jobe would curse God. But it didn’t happen. Satan’s then does his worst. He took Jobe’s family. Satan thought to himself that’ll do it. Jobe’s wife comes along and says, “It looks like your friend God has long forsaken you. You might as well curse him and die.” Satan says to God, “Here’s where he does it.” God says, “Well, he hasn’t talked yet.” They both listen. Job says, “Never will I curse my friend God. Never will it happen.” God said, “I knew it, I knew it,” and won the bet.
The Meaning
I really enjoyed the story, but I wasn’t really sure what the meaning or purpose was. Mr. Rohn then said that God seems to delight in great adventure. And the only way to have great adventure is to have both danger and opportunity in life and us with the possibility of figuring it out. Isn’t that so true? Life will provide us with opportunity, and it will also provide us some danger. It is up to us to figure out what it all means and how we can learn from it.
Good things and bad things happen to us all. The difference between the people who are happy and the people who are miserable is how they respond to it. You have a choice to make sense of everything that happens in your life. You have to figure out what it means and how to respond. And how you do that will determine how happy or sad you are.
The Takeaway
I really loved this short story that Mr. Rohn shared in his talk. He was able to share some brilliant insight on happiness. Life will bring us good and bad. No one is immune. We don’t always have a choice of what happens to us, but we do have a choice on how we respond and how we make sense of what happened. If you want to be happier in life, try to figure life out and understand that life is an adventure. It’s your job to chose how you want to live it!!!