Job is the paragon of patience in the Bible. (see; James 5:11 KJV) What a joke! Job whines, bitches, and bellyaches with the best of them. He curses the day he was born in chapter 3 (starting with verse 3) and carries on through chapter 30 verses 20-21 (I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and thou regardest me not. Thou art cruel to me: with thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me). Understand, I have no problem with Job's reaction to losing all he's got (including his health). What I have a problem with is the superficial depiction (ie, "the patience of Job") that persists to this day about Job's true response. Unrealistic, suggested superhuman endurance in the face of abject adversity lends itself to self-condemnation and, possibly, self-loathing. Do not do this to yourself.
As I have said in other posts, honor your initial reaction to the events in your life. If you need to rage, rage! If you need to curl up in a little ball and cry like a baby, do so. If you wish to denounce God, by all means have at it ('Thou art cruel to me'). What I ask you not to do, is decide that this is all there is. That the story ends with you overwhelmed, victimized, beaten. That is not your destiny. Nor is it what the story of Job illustrates. Even after his endless kvetching, Job is restored, and more. (42:12) That is the moral of the story, not Job's patience. After tragedy or catastrophe, let it be your story as well.
Friday, January 1, 2016
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Affliction
It's hard to hang with God. It seems far easier to be swept up and away in a storm of disbelief, doubt, denial. The inexplicable swallowed up in the solution that it is an indifferent universe--infinitely cold and distant, a tilt-a-whirl spinning mindlessly, enacting the danse macabre to the same tired, trite tune.
It's hard to hang with God. When you observe the same senseless acts of cruelty, racism, and hatred, played out over and over, endlessly, like a rerun on a channel you are incapable of changing despite all efforts to do so; would seem a good time to call it quits.
It's hard to hang with God. A lifetime of unfulfilled prayers, petitions denied, supplications ignored, lends itself to a skeptical mind and a cynical heart. These are simple by-products; the exercise of cause and effect, night following day, despair trumping deity.
It's hard to hang with God. There seems much to support severing the relationship, evidence to end the event. And I would if I could but I can't...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osVaF4t-zFc
It's hard to hang with God. When you observe the same senseless acts of cruelty, racism, and hatred, played out over and over, endlessly, like a rerun on a channel you are incapable of changing despite all efforts to do so; would seem a good time to call it quits.
It's hard to hang with God. A lifetime of unfulfilled prayers, petitions denied, supplications ignored, lends itself to a skeptical mind and a cynical heart. These are simple by-products; the exercise of cause and effect, night following day, despair trumping deity.
It's hard to hang with God. There seems much to support severing the relationship, evidence to end the event. And I would if I could but I can't...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osVaF4t-zFc
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