The Acceptance of Suffering

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"[Job's] wife asked him, 'Are you still holding on to your principles? Curse God and die!' He said to her, 'You're talking like a godless fool. We accept the good that God gives us. Shouldn't we also accept the bad?' Through all this Job's lips did not utter one sinful word. Job 2:9-10 God's Word to the Nations

I refuse to be upset with Job's wife. She watches her husband suffer not only the loss of his wealth and children, but now she watches him lose his health. His body is covered with boils as God allows Satan to afflict Job's life a second time. We forget that Job's loss is also her loss. She has lost her children, wealth and her husband to pain.

She wants his pain, and hers, to stop.

All that we can think about when we experience pain is when will it end. We spend a great deal of money on doctors in the hope that our pain will stop. Sometimes it does, but other times it lingers. And in some situations the pain grows worse.

Job's attitude toward pain slaps us upside the head. "We accept the good that God gives us. Shouldn't we also accept the bad?" That probably sounds like weak resignation to some of us. "I might as well accept the pain. Life isn't going to get any better." The writer then tells us that in all this Job didn't sin. He was willing to entrust himself to God even when God's actions didn't make sense.

This acceptance of a horrible situation is probably a huge step for most of us reading this blog. We're angry at God, the doctors, the dog. We need someone to blame for the pain of our lives. We need something at which to shake our fists.

Can we entrust ourselves to God even when he doesn't make sense?

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Text and Photographs ©Copyright 2012-2015 Douglas P. Brauner.  ARR.