Did You Hear? Study of The Book of Job Starts August 15!

A lesson from my radio days:

“I am sick of this stupid spot!” I said off-air to the guy coming on after me. (He was in the studio getting ready for his show.) “We have to be losing listeners because of it.”

The commercial was, actually, one that this very friend and I had created  several months before, and, at first, we’d both been fairly proud of it. The station even put it up for a local award.  It was funny and apparently — based on the number of times the client had paid to air it — very effective.

(Sorry. This was years ago. And I’m getting old. I don’t remember what the spot was about. I don’t even remember who the client was. I just know it was unusually funny — at first.)

But, by the time of this story, my friend and I had played it on our shows at least twice an hour, day after day, week after week. And, some time around about the 200th airing on my show, I felt it fall from funny to stupid. “Really annoying” was fast approaching, and “Now, I’m just embarrassed. Can we get someone else to re-cut the spot? I want my voice off of it!” was coming next.

But my friend had a couple decades on me in the biz.

“Ah, grasshopper,” he said.  (Yes, he did call me that. It usually annoyed me, but now I call sometimes call young folks that myself. Did I mention I’m old?)  “Don’t worry about the listeners. They aren’t paying near as much attention as you think. By the time a spot like that is making you and me puke, most of the audience is hearing it for the first time.”

On cue,  I punched up the next spot and answered the request line.

“Hahahahahahahahahaha,” the caller roared.  “That’s the best ad I’ve heard in a year!”

That was the last time I ever worried about being publicly annoying.

Yes, I realize I can be long-winded and repetitive. Yes, I even annoy myself sometimes.

But that’s just the price for good communication.

If I want to make sure a lot of folks hear what I’ve got to say, I’ve got to say it many, many times.

So …

I just wanted you to know, dear reader, that I’m going to start a little study of the Book of Job next week. August 15, to be exact. Yes, I realize I already mentioned this in a post last Thursday, and I’m planning to mention it in at least two more posts before the 15th. Get ready for more annoyance!

I’m planning to start with the verse that strikes me hardest from chapter one, and post about a new verse, in a new chapter, every day. There are 41 chapters in the book, so you might get a little annoyed seeing my big “Bible Study” teaser meme popping up on Facebook every day for more than a month. But, as I’ve learned in my media career, that teaser might lead you to click over to read three or four of the 41 posts. Meanwhile, there’s not much chance you’ll see any of them if I take a less annoying approach.

Sigh…That’s just how these things go.

So, dear friend, I’m sorry to be a bother. But God has put on my heart a strong desire to share with you some thoughts about this great — and very tough — Book of Job. Ole’ Job has guided me through some hard times over the years. And he’s taught me a lot about about God’s –very misunderstood — character.

I regularly overhear a lot of bad assumptions about God coming from dear people I know (and many I do not know), and I have longed for a way to kindly, gently guide folks down the same path I’ve traveled to true understanding (and Salvation!) I ‘m sort of thinking this little study might be that way (or at least one way).

I’m not planning to preach, and I’m not planning to lecture. I’m not even planning to bore. So I’m a little hesitant about even calling this study a study.

But it’s a study, just the same.

I’m planning to “study” each verse, listening carefully for God’s lessons to me, and write those up for me and you both– for whatever they’re worth.  Some of the lessons will be repeats, of course. (God definitely knows the deal about how we people folks don’t always hear Him the first 5,000 times or so.) So be it. I’m going to write them up, just the same.

I mentioned on Thursday that this study was inspired by Francis Chan and his vision of a church in everyone reads the same verses at the same time — and then talks to each other about those verses. That’s what the comments section on each post will be all about. Let’s get ready to talk about Ole’ Job and all his friends.

Let’s do it, everybody! You ready? August 15 is the day! If you’re up for a little pre-reading, I found this seemingly decent list of books and articles about Job. I’ll admit that I don’t think I’ve read anything on this list myself. But maybe I will between now and August. 15.  Maybe you will too? If you’re so inclined, use the comment section below  to tell me (us) about them.

Did you hear? I’m starting a study of Job right here on this site on August 15.  See you then!