Daily PresenceSample

I love the music of Rich Mullins…. yeah go search Spotify. One of his songs talks about how we are not as strong as we think we are. There is a lot of truth in that. By the time we get to the passage today, we know that Job has suffered. We know his friends came to be with him and that they said a lot of things that were wrong about God (and Job). We have heard Job talking about how hard things are and how things aren’t fair. And in a lot of ways, he is right. Everyone you know has suffered. Maybe they did something that brought on the suffering and maybe they did not. The bottom line is that we have all suffered. Jesus told his followers if they are going to treat me badly, you can expect they will treat you badly. In Matthew Chapter 5 we read that the rain falls on the just and the unjust. The wise man built on rock and the foolish man built on sand—but the storms came to both (Matthew chapter 7). At the end of the day, we must understand that a broken world brings brokenness. It’s not very encouraging if we stop there, is it? While it seems like the bad people prosper, and it appears that we really can be good and still suffer—that cannot be the end of the story. I think there are times that our cry out to God is just that…. a cry. I don’t know that any answer helps. I lost my father when I was 22 and it was tough. I can tell you that no reason why would have helped me with my loss and hurt. It’s not the answer that matters near as much as the One we are asking. Crying out to God in our hurt, need, and pain are essential because He goes beyond those. We need God for those moments more than we need anything else because in those moments of horrible tragedy we are face to face with a need that says, “I need more than what this world offers.” Job needed help and relief. More than that he needed his God. In the end, we are not as strong as we think we are.