Is This Too Trivial For God?

Sunshine bright with glory bathed our tiny backyard. Blue sky beckoned. Winter months had been long for our four-year-old son, and he was ready for play.

“If you need me, I’ll call you,” he shouted a split second before the screen door banged behind him. Its echo slammed inside my head.

I plopped down with a grin.

“If you need me, I’ll call you.” What kind of twisted reasoning was that?

Do I treat God that way, I wondered? Did my life sometimes display the arrogance of one whose need of God seesawed on my circumstances?

Was I somewhat like Job’s friend Eliphaz, who angered God with his twisted reasoning?

“Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself. Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are in the right, or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?” ( Job 22:2-3 ESV).

Eliphaz implied that God, being so removed in His loftiness, didn’t regard Job’s “trivial” concerns or complaints.

His thinking was twisted. Eliphaz thought that all suffering resulted from sin. He slid into the idea that righteous living makes life easier. He was wrong on both counts.

Eliphaz’s shallow view of God’s Sovereignty judged Job through a human lens of understanding. Not only did it condemn Job, but also it placed an Infinite God into finite boxes.

It set boundaries declaring what an Almighty God could, should, or would do. And, what He could, should, or would not do.

I find myself often sliding into twisted reasoning, the kind that places God within the boundaries of my own stilted thoughts. Conclusions, not rooted in His Word, but rather stemming from my own sensibilities of right or wrong, usurp Him.   

God allows many things I cannot understand, but those irreconcilable perplexing sorrows never promote me to be judge over Him or His actions, as though I know better.

Our needs position us at His feet, a humble place where we find Him ready to hear our call.

Eliphaz couldn’t conceive an uncontainable God, One who thinks differently than we do, without man-made perimeters. One who sees with holy and perfect eyes what we cannot. Or Who cares about the seemingly insignificant trivial details of life, as well as the really big ones.Our needs position us at His feet, a place where we find Him ready to hear our call. Share on X

Eliphaz’s own assumptions excluded God’s abundant goodness, mercy and grace. He didn’t account for a Sovereign Father who sifts even our deepest suffering through His Loving Hands.   

And it showed in his regard for what he considered Job’s trivial concerns. 

Later in Job’s story of tragedy and loss, God addressed Job with this question, “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.” (Job 40:2 ESV)

Job needed this reminder because life had become unbearable in its sorrow. Eliphaz needed it, because his reasoning had become unstable.

“…The Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.” (Job 42:7 NKJV)

I need the reminder, too.

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:2 NKJV)

God renews our minds. He transforms our thinking and reasoning. He changes us from the inside out.

“If you need me, I’ll call you.” The sweet memory of a child’s mixed up sentence reminds me that God’s purposes and plans are far beyond what I can fathom. He cares about all my details. Nothing is too trivial.

He’s waiting for my call.

*Feature Photo by Philip Schroeder