Recently I have been teaching the story of Job to my students in Bible II. Again I am impressed with the sheer amount of tough theology that exists inside this story. The question that this text asks is how do we suffer? This texts pushes us to ask how far we trust God? My personal favorite verse from Job would be in chapter two where Job speaks to his wife and rhetorically asks "Shall we accept the good from God and not adversity?" So many times in life, whether its September 11th in the United States or whether its a September 11th in your heart, we all have to suffer. Many of us shout to the heavens, is this fair? What have we done to deserve this? Here the esteemed theologian Clint Eastwood gives us some guidance "Deserves has got nothing to do with it." I wonder sometimes if God ever wants to shout back "Do you really trust in who I am?" I do not mean to sound callous because, believe me, though not as bad as some, I have had to suffer. But...I think there is a great deal of comfort in knowing that God is in absolute control of everything. Without this sovereign God, all life would literally be suffering as Buddhism states. Job, though he lost everything in his life, understood in a dramatic way what it meant to trust in God. He had hard times, he questioned God, was reproved by God, but never lost his faith. We suffer the heartaches of life, and we have something to learn from Job. If we really say we trust Christ, if he is really in control, then there is a purpose behind everything we suffer. Maybe our suffering is to teach us a lesson, maybe its to hammer us out on the anvil of righteousness, or maybe, and this really just occurred to me, our suffering could be a witness to those in this world that see suffering as just some random thing that happens and the best we can hope for is to not be too unlucky. Either way, may we all have the depth of faith, the depth of relationship to rend our mantles, cover ourselves with ashes, and worship God when we suffer because we hope in a God that is all-powerful, all-purposeful, all just, and all loving. Amen.
