Job Never Knew

Everybody knows the Biblical story of Job, right? Okay, maybe not everybody, but if you grew up in church or went to a Christian school as I did, chances are, it came up. In the first chapter of the book of Job, Satan claims that Job's faithfulness and righteousness have been dependent on God's blessings. Satan claims that Job would surely curse God if God were to take away the blessings from Job's life. God considers this and allows Satan to test Job, so long as Job himself is not touched. I have always found comfort in this part of the story (Job 1:12) - Satan cannot do anything to us unless God allows him, and God has our best interest in mind, right? I still find comfort in that verse, but I also have a new perspective: after more study, I realized that Job never found out why God allowed such suffering.

The book of Job consists of much "back-and-forth" between Job, God, and the "miserable comforters" who tell Job that he deserves to suffer even more than he already is. Job questions, but it is never revealed to Job why this pain fell upon him. Some might take this to mean that we can't question God - because we know the end of the story - but I would say that the whole point is that we can question. Our questioning does not change the outcome, nor does it make God love us less, but we are free to wonder why there is so much pain in our world. We can have faith that God is for us and will never leave us nor forsake us, but should we doubt, God is right there waiting to pick us up. We don't have to start over from square one every time we mess up - we would never get anywhere.

I want to leave you with a verse from a song. I am not going to post an audio or video clip (you can look it up on YouTube if you want; the song is called "Oh Heart Bereaved and Lonely" by Leigh Nash), but one verse in particular has given me comfort through my doubting periods:

Oh cling to thy redeemer: thy savior, brother friend

Believe and trust his promise to keep you ‘til the end

Oh watch and wait with patience, and question all you will

His arms of love and mercy are ‘round about thee still

Divided We Fall

Within the span of 24 hours, America has lost 30 individuals, with at least 53 more injured, in two separate mass shootings. The nation is divided, with some arguing for stricter gun control, and others arguing that guns are not the problem; a lack of concern for others is. I am not here to argue either of these points. But why must we be divided right now? Certainly, there is a problem in America, and these incidents can serve as talking points when it is time to discuss change, but now is not the time to be divided.

We must not let these differences stand in the way of acknowledging the humanity of the lives lost. Thirty humans that will never again experience the joy of playing on a playground or watching their children do so. Never again get to laugh at a funny joke or cringe at a cheesy one. Thirty lives cut short by senseless violence fueled by hate.

One of the beautiful things about America is that it is a place to have different views come to the table. Different experiences. Different political views. We can learn a lot just by listening to one another. But at the end of the day, we're all at the same table. We have differing views, yes, but we will accomplish nothing by pointing fingers, or worse, leaving this metaphorical table when someone inevitably disagrees with us.

The perpetrators of these attacks are seeking to create division, and right now they are winning. We must unite in the face of tragedy to keep things like this from happening. It can be done. "United we stand; divided we fall."

Reckless Love

By now, I'm sure most people who listen to Christian radio or are involved in the Christian community at all have heard of the controversy surrounding Cory Asbury's song "Reckless Love." It has been referred to as the "How He Loves" of 2017. The controversy, as far as I am aware, concerns the use of the word "reckless" in reference to perfect love coming from a holy God. Many people believe that the negative connotations of the word are inappropriate for such a use.

I am a big fan of controversial word choice. I think it has the power to not only attract attention but also to make us think more deeply about what we believe and the words we use to describe it. I once wrote a blog post entitled "The God Delusion" (apparently the name of an atheist work that attempts to debunk the existence of God. Oops.). I'm not sure how controversial this word choice would have been if this atheist work did not exist, but in my mind, the word "delusion" connotes a belief that is simply not true. However, I was using it to refer to "blind faith," believing what you are told without doing your own research. I am not seeking to defend this choice of words right now (you can read the blog post here if you really want to), but I am simply saying that I am no stranger to controversy. Heck, Jesus himself used not only controversial words, but entire controversial ideas. But I digress.

Now for the real purpose of this entry: the meaning of the word "reckless" in the context of this song. Dictionary.com defines "reckless" as "utterly unconcerned about the consequences of some action; without caution; careless." Certainly describing God as careless is, itself, careless. But in this context, I don't think it means "careless" as much as "careFREE." God does not have to worry about potential negative consequences of his actions, because God creates those consequences. The first scripture that comes to mind as demonstrating this "recklessness" is, of course, Matthew 18:12-14 - the parable of the lost sheep - mentioned in the song. Leaving ninety-nine sheep to find one IS reckless; dying for someone knowing that they might not even acknowledge it IS reckless. And that is beautiful.