DAY 192

GETTING REAL WITH GOD

Job 41 & 42 and Acts 16:22-40

As we come to the end of Job I continue to be struck by the literary nature of this book. The description of the Leviathan and all that goes along with him/it is amazing. Our journey though through this book has been about much more than enjoying a well written work. Our journey has been about entering the world of suffering and asking “why.” Remarkably we knew “why” it was all happening, yet we too have been drawn into the debate and dialog of Job and his friends as they try and answer this exact question – “why.” As we come to the end we see the idea of expecting one singular reason is naïve. We see the utter futility of such a question. Even if we know the answer, the suffering, the pain, is none the less. The key is whether or not we can hold onto God, and feel God holding onto us. If we feel the presence of God, then amid the suffering, we will not lose hope.

Think back to the point where Job exclaimed exactly that point. Job knew that the worst that could happen was the end of his human life on earth. And it is the worst. We have family and friends…all these relationships that can mean so much to us. We have vocations and avocations…that which add to our purpose. Our lives have meaning for we are created in the image of God. Yet the question remains, when it looks as bleak as death, do we have enough of a sense of, and enough of a connection to, God that we will not lose hope. In some ways for the last 190 days or so I have been more then hinting about our relationship with God. Don’t misunderstand, I enjoy religion and church (after all I am a priest), but those things cannot replace a relationship. It is our relationship with God that will sustain. Jesus is the source of that relationship.

This idea of having a relationship of God through Jesus Christ is what Paul has been running all over “Timbuktu” telling people about. He can only do this after he first is grabbed hold of by God. Rather than dive into the Acts reading I would suggest you ask yourself about your own suffering, that which you have experienced, that which you are experiencing. Press the “pause button” on the “why” question, and lean into God, pray to God, let tears run down your cheeks asking God to plant in you the kind of hope we read about.

God might deliver you from your situation, but He also might for the first time feel you seeking Him above all else, even your own deliverance from a situation that He well knows is difficult. I am not trying to minimize your pain…wasn’t Job’s pain excruciating. What I am suggesting is that it is the story of Job that holds up to us the reality of our own lives and the offer of God presence. Said directly: What Job offers us is an opportunity to get real with God.