Vol III: #30 We Are All Job
When I read the Bible, I try to identify with people in the stories. And, I assume most of us do that. We want to know their failures are no different than our own, and their success can be our success. How often have you heard someone say “I’m a David?” Or a Paul or Ruth? A lot, right? It’s all part of the charismatic/pentecostal tradition.
My least favorite comparison I hear is “I’m like Job.” Of course, you are I scoff as I mentally roll my eyes. The type of person who compares their life to the story of Job is usually the same kind of person with zero self-awareness and a self-sabotage/codependent streak. I recall sitting in a messy apartment across from my friend Clint. He was drunk and whiny and rambling about the state of his life. As I watched him unpack a box of painkillers from India, he told me “the enemy is offering me the world on a silver platter and I feel like Job.” Judgement rose in my heart, wasn’t Job considered blameless? Clint suffered a few injustices in his life, but his addiction and manipulation issues were all his own doing. He was not blameless.
Despite these annoyances, I enjoy the story of Job. And the most important part of the Job’s story is how he responded to the adversity. Family killed, property destroyed, discouraging friends, and body attacked; Job refused to curse the Lord. He held onto to the single biggest truth, that the Lord is good. So, when I say “we are all Job,” what I mean is we have the opportunity to respond like Job when we suffer. Because, we will suffer. And no, it’s not fair. It wasn’t fair when my grandmother lost two of her young sons or when my best friend’s brother died of blood cancer at the old age of 27. The only thing we can control is how we respond to life. Let us all be Job.
(Living in the United States during the early 21st century created a lot of entitlement. We believe we will live without pain or injustice. This entitlement helped to turn more people away from the Lord then science. The idea being there must not be a God if…. If you believe such a thing, you didn’t read the Bible. Not only does every Bible hero suffer, but the main man himself aka Jesus assured us we will suffer.)
