Remembering what my beloved mentor taught me, I resolved to be what Job was

A Man Worth His Salt

Sooner or later, braggarts are brought low, as I once learned when I boasted to my college students that I made it through winter without even so much as a head cold. Bam! The next morning I awoke feeling terrible.

After his examination, my doctor said, “You’re suffering from a virus with flu-like symptoms — chills, fever, scratchy throat, coughing, clogged sinus cavities, and watery eyes. Take antibiotics, drink plenty of fluids, and rest.”

As I lay in bed, absolutely miserable, I developed another symptom: the woe-is-me syndrome. In my daily morning prayers, I always ask God to let me make it through the ongoing semester without illness, and here I was, sick, missing work.

In the depths of self-pity and viewing myself as an object of unjust suffering, I was disappointed in God because He didn’t answer my prayers.

I thought about one of the many lessons taught to me by my boyhood best friend and mentor, Jaybird, who loved stories about Biblical characters, of whom Job was one of his favorites. A master storyteller, the old black man retold tales he’d heard in his own inimitable way. I’ll never forget his yarn about Job.

“If a man is worth his salt and trusts the Lord, he don’t never feel sorry for hisself. Take Job, for instance. One day, God told Satan that Job was a man of faith and wouldn’t never let the devil shake that faith.

Satan argued that the only reason Job held his faith was because he had a big family, lots o’ land, and plenty o’ money. Satan bet God that if these blessings was taken from him, he’d abandon his faith.

“Seein’ an opportunity to teach his chillun about the evils o’ self-pity, God let Satan strip Job o’ all he held dear. His chillun died, and he lost his cattle and land.

“Facin’ such a calamity, most folks would’ve turned to beggin’ forgiveness for their sins, hopin’ that God would relieve them o’ misery. 

“Not Job — he trusted his Maker. He hadn’t committed no sins worthy of such suffering, and ’fessin’ up to wrongful deeds he never had done would prove he didn’t have faith.

“It wasn’t so much the patience o’ Job as much as it was his strength to endure the hard times. And it paid off. Job’s story ended happily: God rewarded him with a new family, more camels and sheep than he had before, and twice as much land.

“ You see … Job had a job to do: He had to hold on to his faith. He suffered sumpin’ terrible, but never stopped lovin’ the Lord. He was a man worth his salt.”

Reflecting on my beloved mentor’s story, I realized that sickness, like health, is part of human existence, an annealing experience that tests one’s tenacity and endurance, thereby making those virtues — as well as one’s faith — stronger.

Remembering what my beloved mentor taught me, I resolved to be what Job was: a man worth his salt.