Reacting to Missing Lobe Behavior

"At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head.

Then he fell to the ground in worship." Job 1:20

Job is like a super star of reactionary worship to me. After all of the horrible things that happened in his life, he worshipped. I mean, sure he tore his robe and shaved his head, but he didn’t stop there. He didn’t curse God. He worshipped.

Wow.

Do I react in worship? Do you?

Most of the time I probably don’t. But this week I’ve been thinking on this and so I’ve been trying to watch my reactions. Living with a fourteen-year-old young man gives me plenty of practice. I love Noah. He is a great kid.

However, scientifically Noah’s frontal lobe, like most young men his age, is not fully developed. This brings me a bit of hope for his future when said lobe will have kicked into high gear. For now, well, not so much.

Saturday he had a football game. In an effort to allow him to learn more individual responsibility I do not prepare everything for him. But I did quiz him.

Noah, are you ready to go?

Yes.

Do you have everything?

Yep.

Water and Albuterol? Uniform?

Yeah, yeah and yeah. My uniform is at school.

So I took him to his game and told him I’d be there for the game later after my Zumba class. I was extremely excited about the class since my main instructor would be back after a long time off due to a broken foot. I drove 15 minutes to his school and then 20 minutes back to the gym by our house. In the gym parking lot, the phone rang.

“Mom, I’m so sorry, but my football pants are in my backpack in my room.”

I tore my clothes and desperately looked for some scissors to shave my head.

Not exactly, but I reacted. I didn’t yell, but my blood began to boil as I told Noah I’d bring the pants to him. On the five minute drive back to our house, the Spirit of God reminded me of Job and reactionary worship. Now He did this as I was mumble-cussing (that’s what the Iobsts call it) under my breath.

I stopped. And even though I still felt anger I made the choice to worship.

God you are great. I praise your name for Noah. You are in charge of football pants and Zumba and You have this. Cause me to calm down.

As I pulled up to the house, I noticed John was home. He was supposed to be in a meeting but came home early. So he agreed to take the pants to the frontal-lobeless boy and I got to go to Zumba.

I challenge you to watch your reactions today. We are human and we are going to tear clothes and rip out our hair when things go wrong, be it huge circumstances like Job, or minor events like missing football pants.

But then we have a choice. Join me and let’s fall to the ground and worship our God who is worthy of all praise in every circumstance.

Even with our teenage boys who have no frontal lobes.