Some Thoughts

When I was a kid, I was usually preoccupied in church. I spent most of the sermon (that's a homily for my Catholic readership) engrossed in reading rather than paying attention. I'd read the church bulletin a lot, but, often, I'd just read the Bible. And, thus began a descent into a life in which books provided comfort or, in this case, an escape from boredom.

My favorite reads during my sermon boycotts were Song of Solomon, Job, Ruth, and Esther. Perhaps it was growing up Baptist that drew me to Ruth and Esther; I just needed to know what the women had to say! But, Job was also a favorite. Perhaps I knew, even as a kid, that life was going to be tough and sometimes lonely, that I would need the help of a higher power in order to get through it. Whatever it was, the story of Job who lost everything--children, wife, friends, possessions--but kept his faith in God, was my favorite to read.

So, I turned to that not so long ago, to remember what I had read so long ago. And it really is amazing how different it was to read, When you're young, reading about Job losing his children sounds terrifying because you, as a child, identify as someone's child. But to read it as an adult, even as an adult who doesn't have children, brings out what a feeling of loss and powerlessness Job must have had to not be able to protect his children.

So, I'm in the middle of reading Job right now. I'm still in the part where he's losing everything, where he's cursing the day of his birth. And, you can feel free to read those last two sentences metaphorically with relation to my spiritual life. I know that I would. But I majored in English, so everything is a metaphor in some ways.

But, that aside, in the beginning of Job, I found two verses that I think really show what the story is about. What you have to remember is that Job was a holy man with whom God found no fault. Job was the epitome of a person living a life exactly as God wanted him to. So, these verses are taken a bit out of context because they're the words of Job's friend, begging Job to repent. Job has nothing to repent though. His life is just hard because God knows that Job is strong enough in his faith to handle it (perhaps the recent news of Mother Theresa's struggles is a good parallel here). But, out of the context of Job's life, I really felt like these verses were good because I don't know anyone who is perfect like Job. I'm certainly not, and I know the struggle to be perfect is just that, a struggle. And, not living up to it is hard, but it's harder still to quit trying. So, the verses are these:

"Blessed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal." Job 5:17&18

For some reason, after quoting a Bible verse, I feel like I should say, "This is the word of God for the people of God." And then you would all say, "Thanks be to God." But that's my Methodist side.

Anyways, I just felt like there was great comfort in those verses because feeling like one has done wrong is very difficult, and being in the middle of hard times is unbearable. But, it is good to know that God's healing also comes if we look for it.