Justified

That title is best read in a fun whisper, with a little Michael-Jacksonesque hand motion at the end.  (Like the hyenas say Mufasa's name in Lion King: "Mufasa... oooohhh... Mufasa... oooohhh.")

I digress. I was reading in Job today. I started reading it because I was at a point in my life when I didn't feel like things could get any worse, and felt like I needed some perspective on that.  Perhaps this is a bad reason to begin a study into a book of the Bible, but I did it anyways, and it has proven to be fruitful. (I mean, it IS the Bible, of course it is fruitful.) In chapter 32, a man named Elihu walks up on this scene of Job agonizing over his situation and his friends scolding him for the things he is saying.  They tell him he is wrong, but they have no capability to correct him.  Elihu flat out tells Job that he has been justifying himself rather than justifying God.  (Insert a little bit of my seminary education here: justify does not mean to make just, but to declare just. So in Job justifying himself, he is making the claim that he is just, when in reality it is God who is just.) --That was a lot of justice--
How deeply I felt the sting of that comment.  Every word that escapes from my lips, and 97% of my actions are meant to declare me just.  I am obsessed with justifying myself. I am addicted, consumed, engrossed, infatuated. I wonder how different my life would look if I were instead fixated on declaring God's justice, rather than my own.
In two chapters, Elihu turns from rebuking Job and his friends, to declaring the glory of God and I am as excited as a kid who is about to get Lego Star Wars on Wii.  For now, I shall contemplate the little bit of God that I understand and pray that my love for him will be radically grown and my justification will be Christocentric rather than egocentric.

(I hope this particular post does not reveal the true scatter-brainedness I am experiencing right now, but as I fear that it does, I apologize.)