Oh Job! What to say about Job?! Well first off, this is one of my newly
found favorite books of the Bible! I really enjoyed reading Job…I know that’s
strange, but I just felt like Job made sense to me. I could understand the
suffering. I mean I didn’t walk in his shoes, but I know what it feels like to
feel like you have had the ground pulled out from beneath you. I can relate to
Job’s sufferings when all he knew was suddenly removed from him. It’s hard to
trust in a God who is supposed to be your friend and is supposed to love and
care for you and all you feel is hurt and abandonment. If God is supposed to be
all those things, you would think He would feel close to you in those times,
yet I have felt the distance He seems from me when I’m hurt and unsure of what
to do. I really liked that Job cried out to God. It makes me feel like it’s
normal to cry to God when I do not understand what is going on. It’s okay for
me to feel anger and frustrations and confusion. In the times that Job felt
most abandoned, God was likely the closest to him. God continually heard his
cries and responded to his thoughts. God didn’t leave him. Seeing this
conversation go on between Job and God allows me to see how God may work in my
life when I deal with hard times. I may not always get the answer I’m looking
for, but God hasn’t stopped listening. Instead God continually reminds me of
all He has done for me. He reminds me of all the care He has for his creation.
Why then would He have reason to leave me?
The other day, I was driving home from work when I noticed the
brightness and beauty of the moon. I shared the vision I was seeing with
Allison on the phone. Now, I saw this moon in Lewisville, Texas and she is in
Seguin and she says “Wow! That is a beautiful moon!” and for a moment I was
completely confused. How was it possible for her to see the same moon I saw?!
Then it clicked for me that, I’m dumb because all people on this planet see the
same moon I do, just at different angles and at different times in the day. It
was a reminder to me of how small my world is. The community and environment
around me that I engage in is so small in comparison to all of God’s creation.
God’s creation is so vast and beautiful and He cares oh so much for each
created being. So, from reading Job and relating to his feelings in times of
suffering, and recognizing the vastness of creation as I noticed the moon, I’m
really feeling how incredible God really is. God loves me so much that He
created me to be the person I am in the midst of His larger creations, so with
that love He won’t leave my side, just like He didn’t leave Job.
Remember that God loves you dearly and He will always be with you
wherever you go.
Allison--
So Elizabeth
is a fan of Job. Me? Not so much. I
mean, I really love aspects of Job—the honesty with God, the discussion between
the friends, the reminder of humility. I
guess it’s just too lengthy for me, too wordy.
I like things to be to the point or going somewhere, but I feel like Job
and his friends talk in circles a lot. They
make the same point each time they open their mouths. “You must have sinned Job, so that’s why this
has happened.” Or, “I have done nothing
wrong. Why is this happening to
me?” And maybe there’s something to be
said there about over-discussing something.
God does have a good point when God speaks at the end (granted, since
God is God, God often makes excellent points).
The verse that sticks out to me is “Where were you when I laid the
foundations of the earth?” (Job 38:4).
Sometimes we
get so caught up in why something is happening to us. And to a point that’s healthy. To vent, to wonder, to question, to grow in
community as you talk over the things happening in your life.
But you can
get to a point where the “why” overshadows the “what’s next”. Part of me thinks God comes down and sets
them straight so Job can move on. How
often have you seen someone wallowing, or perhaps you yourself have wallowed in
your sorrow? It’s so easy to get stuck
in a rut and forget to look up and see what God is trying to lead you towards.
I have a friend who once said "God does not fill your life with storm clouds,
but God does paint a silver lining around them." And I think we sometimes get so caught up in
the puddles and the mud around us that we forget to see the silver lining. But I truly believe God takes the troubles,
the sorrows, the trials we go through and makes beautiful things out of them. And we have to be open to that, to be open to
trying something new or uncomfortable.
This year I’ve been challenged and pushed by God to go outside of my
comfort zone in meeting new people and reaching out. And some really awesome things have come out
of that. It took me hitting bottom to
realize that God was still with me, but God wasn’t going to let me stay
there. And I am so glad that I looked up
and saw the silver lining.
And Job did
too. When he finally looked up from his
sorrow, God carried him through it. And
by the end of the book, we still don’t necessarily understand why it all
happened, but we understand God was there.
And that’s really the point of it all.
Consider these ideas this week:
Trials Grace Moving Forward
Sisters in Christ,
Allison & Elizabeth
