When faced with suffering in life, it
is tempting to quote the anguished Scripture verse to
"curse God and die." Written 4000 years ago, the same
words have been spoken by countless hurting people to this day. I
could feel that way too if I lost my career, children and health all
in the same day. In the life of a highly esteemed man named
Job, he suddenly lost all of those things in one terrible day. As he
sat on the ground in ashes, grieving and scraping himself with a piece of
broken pottery, his wife asked Job a pointed question from her own
tortured heart, "Are you still holding on to your integrity?
Curse God and die!" (Job 2:9)
Job's wife chose to curse God for her
losses. In a single day their ten children died in a desert
windstorm. Their cattle and riches were attacked and stolen.
They had nothing left. And now Job's skin was covered with
painful sores from his feet to his head. She was angry and raged at
God. She told Job he should do the same and just kill himself. Why
keep living when life hurts like hell?
But Job kept his integrity. He
responded to his wife with a completely different view and a question of his own, "You
are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not
trouble?" When Job first heard of his children's deaths, he had
a similar response, "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name
of the Lord be praised." In all this Job did not sin by charging God
with wrongdoing." (Job 1:21-22)
Are you like Job or Job's wife?
Have you ever cursed God for bad things that happened to you and felt
like ending your life? When I consider Job's losses, I can
understand his wife's despair to curse God and die. Sometimes human
anguish seems like too much to bear and we direct our rage at God.
Examples of human tragedy are everywhere. A couple I know lost
their son at only nine years old. A friend of mine was
murdered. My brother recently suffered through major surgeries
for cancer. And this week in the news, a family in Minnesota
is grieving because their parents just died in a cruise ship that is
sinking off Italy. The list goes on and on.
But the list of good things go on and on
too. In most of our lives, the good things outweigh the bad--if we
choose to weigh it that way. Shall we accept good from
God, but not trouble? Gratitude is an ancient key to life and
happiness. Gratitude for good things and tolerance of the
bad allows us to live instead of die.
Yet even Job struggled to keep his
positive attitude for long. Seven days later, "Job opened
his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. He said, "May the day of
my birth perish, and the night it was said, A boy is born!"....What I
dreaded has happened to me. I have no peace, no quietness; I have no
rest, but only turmoil." (Job 3) Job and his wife are examples of
good people who believed in God yet went through the worst of
human sufferings. The truth is that no one is exempt in this
world. And while the story of Job has a happy ending with new children,
wealth and health, the same outcome doesn't happen for everyone.
When suffering visits your life, how do
you respond? And how does your marriage cope when times go from better to
worse, from richer to poorer, from health to sickness? What helps you to
hold on to your integrity to live instead of despairing to die?
For further reflection, take out a sheet
of paper and write down the ten worst hurts in your life. After each
hurt, write about how this effected you and your life. And last, and
perhaps most importantly, write about what can help you to recover and get over
each hurt.
To print out the worksheet, click here and go to Healing the Hurts in My Life Worksheet.
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