The Patience of Job?

You know a Job.  Just about everyone does.  In fact, as you read this post, your Job is already coming to mind.  They experience an inordinate amount of misfortune.  Emergency contacts and insurance company phone numbers are posted on their fridge.  They know which phone buttons to poke to talk to a real person at those insurance companies.  Jobs are regulars on church prayer chains and in sharing times.  Sickness, accidents, financial crises are not occasional visitors, but residents in their homes.

No one knows why some people seem to live Job lives.  If ever you find yourself thinking, "They must have done something to be in that position" then take another look at the book of Job.  It's true that there are consequences to our actions, but suffering isn't, by any means, always a result of some hidden character defect or moral failure.   And yet how often do we fall into that judgment trap?

Job's "friends" (with friends like these...) quickly deduced that Job must have done something to deserve such a rotten turn of events.  Little did they know that it was the Accuser, the satan, who had been given permission by God to "afflict" Job with any terror he wished, short of death.  And that permission presents a whole assortment of problems and questions for those who want to follow a loving God.  What sort of a God does that?  The ending of Job, when health and wealth are restored and he gets a new family, is hardly satisfying either.  I can't imagine a father thinking, "Well this kid's better than the last one anyway.  No harm no foul."  So where does Job leave us?  As a friend recently posited to me, are we simply a part of "...a big experiment and God will decide when he's ready to intervene...?"  


This week's message is the final in our four part series, Where's God When Life is a Mess?  We will review Job's trials and what he learns from them about God, friends, life.  Come to get confused, frustrated, and just maybe, closer to God.  
- Curtis