{"id":2416,"date":"2023-03-06T08:15:58","date_gmt":"2023-03-06T13:15:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=2416"},"modified":"2023-03-06T08:15:58","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T13:15:58","slug":"job-316","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/06\/job-316\/","title":{"rendered":"Job 3:16"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>.

Every day during this season of Lent we\u2019re looking at one of the \u201c3:16\u201d verses of the Bible, spotlighting some of the significant theological statements that happen to fall on the 16th<\/sup> verse of the third chapter of a number of Old and New Testament books.\u00a0<\/em>
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\u201cOr why was I not hidden away in the ground like a stillborn child, like an infant who never saw the light of day?\u201d
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The book of Job, which is quite likely the oldest of the Bible’s 66 books, wrestles with what is quite likely the\u00a0oldest of theological questions:\u00a0 Where is God when life hurts?<\/em>

As the book opens, Job, the main character, is famous for his wealth and generosity.\u00a0 He is a good man who is living the Good Life.\u00a0\u00a0By the second chapter, however, Job has been crushed by a series of disasters.\u00a0 He has lost his children, his health, his net worth, and his certainty\u00a0that life is fair.
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His statement in Job 3:16 is shocking.\u00a0 If only I didn\u2019t exist.\u00a0 If only I had never been born<\/em>.\u00a0
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Is it possible to be both blessed and depressed?\u00a0 Is it possible to be suicidally despondent and still be living under God\u2019s favor?\u00a0
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The book of Job answers that question.\u00a0 The answer is Yes.\u00a0
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Chapter after chapter, Job rails against God.\u00a0 He wants to know why his life has run off the rails.\u00a0 He demands answers.\u00a0 Divine intervention.\u00a0 Something<\/em>.\u00a0 He never receives the fullness of what he seeks, but he does receive God\u2019s commendation in the end.\u00a0 God never blames him for his doubts, his depression, or his rage.\u00a0 And that is something the Church, over the centuries, has struggled to take to heart.
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During certain periods of Church history, suicide has been portrayed as an unforgivable sin.\u00a0 After all, how could someone ever ask for forgiveness after making such a desperate choice? \u00a0
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But consensus has emerged among both Catholics and Protestants that our weakness isn\u2019t greater than God\u2019s grace.
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Everyone agrees that self-harm is the antithesis of God\u2019s will.\u00a0 About two dozen suicides are reported on the pages of scripture, including King Saul, Samson, and Judas Iscariot, and not one of them is seen in a positive light.\u00a0 But we have no reason to believe that self-harm has the power to thrust someone beyond God\u2019s mercy, especially at the moment of our greatest need.
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Nor do we squander God\u2019s blessing when we take full advantage of the medical advances that have brought so much relief to people who battle clinical depression.
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The good news is that sadness, despondency, and hopelessness cannot separate us from the love of God.\u00a0 And there is much we can do to relieve the kind of anguish Job so obviously feels.
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Three of Job’s friends, meanwhile, have gotten wind of what has happened to him and set out together to provide\u00a0comfort.\u00a0 They are blown away by what they find:

“When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads.\u00a0 Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights.\u00a0 No one said a word to him because they saw how great his suffering was” (Job\u00a02:12-13).

Years ago, when I was going through one of the hardest times in my life, a friend came to see me.\u00a0 We simultaneously pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant where we had agreed to meet.

As soon as he saw me, he began to cry.

My friend may have felt a bit awkward.\u00a0 It’s not always easy for guys to cry. Perhaps he imagined that he was going to say something profound.\u00a0 All I know is that I will never forget that moment.\u00a0 He didn’t need to say or do anything else.\u00a0 His tears were the greatest gift he could have given to me.\u00a0 They restored my hope.\u00a0

When Job’s three friends show up, they get things just right.\u00a0 They sit down and say nothing.

In large part because of this story, sitting shiva<\/em>\u00a0is a cornerstone of the experience of grief\u00a0in Judaism.\u00a0 Shiva<\/em> is the Hebrew word for “seven.”\u00a0 To sit shiva<\/em>, then, means to be present for seven days with a bereaved person, quietly providing a setting where\u00a0that close friend or loved one can work through the initial waves\u00a0of grief.\u00a0\u00a0

This dovetails with the apostle Paul’s gentle words in Romans 12:15: “Mourn with those who mourn.”

Notice what Paul doesn’t<\/em> say.\u00a0\u00a0

He doesn’t advise his readers to tell a grieving person that everything’s\u00a0going to be OK.\u00a0 Or to give them the contact information of a local grief therapy group.\u00a0 Or to provide a likely explanation for why this awful thing happened.\u00a0 Or tell them that since it’s been a few weeks, maybe they should stop crying.\u00a0 After all, people who trust God shouldn’t cry, right?\u00a0\u00a0

If only Job’s three friends had stayed quiet.\u00a0 But apparently they just can\u2019t help themselves.

Just a few chapters into the book, they flat-out accuse\u00a0Job of being the source of his own misery.\u00a0 When God shows up at the end, Job is vindicated.\u00a0 But his three friends are identified as candidates for Remedial Counseling Training.\u00a0 They hadn’t helped the man they came to comfort.\u00a0 They had only made his pain feel worse.\u00a0

When people are asked to look back over their lives and identify what most helped them grow spiritually, one answer consistently rises to the top: suffering.\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0God uses pain to accomplish\u00a0incredible things.\u00a0 Which means our primary call isn’t to rush in and fix someone’s pain, or explain it, or try to change the subject.\u00a0

Our call is to share that pain, perhaps by doing nothing more than shedding tears or sitting quietly nearby.\u00a0\u00a0

Where is God when life\u00a0hurts?\u00a0 Until we’re all in the next world, we won’t be fully able to answer that question.

But in the meantime we can know how to answer a corollary question:\u00a0 Where should we<\/u><\/em> be when life hurts?\u00a0

We should be nearby, giving the gift of simply being present.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here. Every day during this season of Lent we\u2019re looking at one of the \u201c3:16\u201d verses of the Bible, spotlighting some of the significant theological statements that happen to fall on the 16th verse of the third chapter of a number of Old and New Testament books.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cOr why was I not hidden… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2417,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[571,239,434],"class_list":["post-2416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-316-verses","tag-depression","tag-suicide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2416"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2418,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2416\/revisions\/2418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}