People do walk through that valley. All the time. Our responsibility as Christians is to comfort those people, and love them. No matter what. That is why Job is so important. Because even the righteous people and the blameless people in the world walk through that valley. They suffer just like those who could "have it coming to them." How can we judge the "deserving" from the "undeserving" when we can all suffer in the same way? In our service this Saturday, the question was asked,
"Do you think that God tests our love for him?"
"Do you think that God tests our love for him?"
Most of us were uncomfortable with that idea. A loving God who tests us with horrible things? It sounded to egotistical of God, too abusive of that creative power. Some tried to reconcile that idea with the idea of free will. By giving us the power to choose, he had to give us a light and dark to choose from. Therefore, it would be interfering with our free will to remove us from the darkness because then we could not appreciate the beauty of the light.
Life tests our love for God, and God gives us the strength and endurance to make something beautiful come out of the darkness.
We also delved into the psyche of Job's wife on Saturday. She has one line in the whole book of Job: "Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God and die." Sounds rather harsh. And realistic. Maybe she is just tired and ready to give up. Or maybe, she wonders how God can be someone good if all this bad is happening to my innocent and righteous husband? But Job rebukes her. Maybe Job's love for God is without conditions. Maybe Job loves God for just being God, with the same agape love in which God loves us.
Maybe, just maybe, Job shows us how we are supposed to love God... the same way God shows his love for us through Jesus Christ.
The whole point of Jesus is that he suffered too. God's son, a part of God, can empathize with what we go through. Even more so, because I cannot say that I've suffered the pain of crucifixion, or even that much persecution. My life has been truly blessed, and I am grateful. An artist from D.C. named Maxwell Lawton did many amazing paintings that encapsulated the type of pain and hope of Job. He suffered with AIDS before his death in 2006, yet like Job, he kept his faith in God despite the tragedies in his life. One of his most famous and controversial works was called "Man of Sorrows," a portrayal of Jesus with AIDS. He stated that he painted that image because: "I realized God knows my pain and shares my grief. I was healed of a lot of hurt. God still knew me." You can read his whole moving biography on his website and see the paintings in his gallery.
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This upcoming Saturday we will be delving more into Job's suffering. In the passage for this week, Job 23:1-9, 16-17 we discover that even though Job has faith and still loves God, he also questions and searches and wavers on his journey. He is not optimistic to the point of unrealistic, he still feels like anyone else who suffers. He has the same emotions. It is his choices in that suffering which set him apart from the ordinary person. Instead of getting angry and turning away from God during his time of suffering, he seeks to understand what God's purpose is for him and for his suffering. Even though his friends turn away from him in earlier chapters, he is always searching for ways to be nearer to God rather than farther from God.
Two brief songs I want to incorporate in the service are from The Faith We Sing hymnal called How Long, Oh Lord (2209) and Guide My Feet (2208).
The second song has particular significance as it was sung by my college choir for a 14 year old boy named Matthew Campbell who was undergoing a heart transplant. His mother was a faculty member at our college and her son was the sweetest boy you could ever meet. He was going through all these difficulties and yet still remained a loving presence in the world until he left it.
Our whole college made a video for him to watch in the hospital, a pep rally of sorts to show our love and support for him. We were told that it was of such comfort to him and that song will always remind me of how we felt God's presence through Matthew Campbell.
What other songs do you feel match your emotions when you are in a time of distress?
What do you listen to when you are suffering?
How do you pray when you are hurting?
Searching for answers,
Virginia Yates
The second song has particular significance as it was sung by my college choir for a 14 year old boy named Matthew Campbell who was undergoing a heart transplant. His mother was a faculty member at our college and her son was the sweetest boy you could ever meet. He was going through all these difficulties and yet still remained a loving presence in the world until he left it.
Our whole college made a video for him to watch in the hospital, a pep rally of sorts to show our love and support for him. We were told that it was of such comfort to him and that song will always remind me of how we felt God's presence through Matthew Campbell.
What other songs do you feel match your emotions when you are in a time of distress?
What do you listen to when you are suffering?
How do you pray when you are hurting?
Searching for answers,
Virginia Yates
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