When God Is Silent - Part 2
When God Is Silent - Part 2
When God Is Silent - Part 2
'Worry is a form of humanistic self-orientation that thinks, "It's up to me to take care of this situation," and is thus a form of practical atheism, acting as if there is no God to deal with the situation, or that God doesn't know or care about the situation.' James Fowler, Worry, Study Outlines, 1999
Anyone who's been through or is going through a hard time will know that people, even close friends and familycan say really odd things to cheer you up. Things like 'it could be worse' or 'you just have to get on with it' or or 'beggars can't be choosers' or 'you knew it wasn't going to be easy' or the classic 'there are other people worse off than you'.
Hmmm. Do any of these off-the-top-of-the-head, roll-off-the-tongue phrases really help when things are tough? If you take a closer look at these pieces of advice, they all boil down to the same thing. You have to change your attitude, you have to do better, you should have done things differently. You, you, you. It's all about you.
The phrase that Christians often wheel out when someone is going through the mill is 'this is your Job experience'. For those of you who are wondering what on earth that means (as the poor, suffering person who gets this well meaning piece of advice probably is as well) here is a quick summary.
Job was a very successful man who loved God and his family. Like everyone, he worried. He worried that his children would turn away from God, he worried that one day disaster would strike. In all of this though he loved God and lived a good life. One day Satan goes to God and sneers at Job saying he only loves God and is only good because God has richly blessed him. So God allows Satan to test Job to with an inch of his life. Job looses everything including his family, his livelihood, his reputation and his health.
Job is also subject to long bits of advice from well meaning friends who keeptelling him what a loving, just God he serves and that this God would never bring Job down - Job is the problem, Job's attitude is wrong, Job should have done better, Job has sinned. Job replies that this is all very well but his situation is so bad, so impossible that he has nothing left to give saying 'What strength have I, that I should endure? And what is my future, that I should be patient?'
Job is exhausted, really angry and frustrated with God. Herefuses to turn his back onGod but it is pretty clear that heis really unhappy with what he perceives God is doing. So these conversations and questions go on until one day, out of the whirlwind God answers Job:"Where were you when I founded the earth? You have knowledge and insight, so tell me. You must know! Who determined its measures?..'If you go read the whole conversation, it's beautiful.
In a nutshell God is gently reminding the careworn, exhaustedand pitiful Job whoHe is. He is the Maker of Heaven and Earth, the Almighty, theBeginning and the End, the Everlasting Father. Job finally gets it and realises; 'I knowyou can do all things, And that nothing withYou is impossible.'
Impossible things happen. There is a bigger picture. You and I cannot do everything. Sometimes we will get to the end of our tether and realise that we are not the answer. Worrying takes energy, rather pray or give it all to God to sort out. So what happened to Job? God restored him, yes Job got family, livelihood, reputation and so on back. More importantly he had been to hell and back, he knew that whatever happened, nothing could separate him from the love of God. From that time on, his love was deeper and he trusted God with his life.
Sometimes, people get to the point where they have nothing left, what they need more than anything else is love. As Job said A friend should be kind to one fainting,'.
The story of Job can be found in the Old Testament of the Bible, before the book of Psalms.
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