What life throws at us?

It starts with little red bumps on my knuckles and along the inside of one or two fingers. At first, they are so faint they seem to be beneath the skin. Untreated, they rise above the surface and become dry, and very itchy red patches. All my life, I’ve had allergic reactions resulting in such things as hay fever, asthma and eczema. At its worst, in a flare, it spreads all over my fingers. Others with eczema find it spreading all over their bodies. The last time it was that bad, I found myself quite unconsciously rubbing my fingers up and down the arm of my armchair. At its best it can see me wringing my hands as if I was continually washing them.

It feels awful enough that I was struck by the thought of Job and his potsherds. The terrible itch came up from deep places; it needed digging out and scraping off. The trouble is scratching makes the itch worse. Before we launch into dozens of chapters of poetry, Job is a short story, a fable about a man coming to grips with undeserved suffering. He scrapes at his sores while sitting on the ash heap. When his wife comes to him and, in her own excruciating grief for the loss of their family, tells him to curse God and die, Job remains faithful. I want to be that person. I strive to be that person, receiving even suffering with equanimity where God is concerned. But sometimes I still end up rubbing my shoulders and fingers against anything that give me relief from the itch.

Here’s the thing: Almost all suffering is undeserved; almost all suffering simply arises from the human condition. We may have an autoimmune disorder and for me if I don’t take the medication with bad side effects for the disease I could lose my sight. We lose the baby. The roads were slick. The other driver was drunk, or inexperienced, or simply driving too fast. And so we could go on. Life itches, and scratching the itch hurts us more. I remember Job when the little red bumps reappear. I smooth steroid cream and other creams on my fingers. I breathe. I take the bad with the good. I pray for patience. I breathe again and try not to make things worse.

Job is an incredibly important book for the church today. This ancient allegory attempts to answer the question “Why do bad things happen to good people?” though in a way that displeases many. The story uses the personification of evil as Satan and the personification of God as two beings in a tug-of-war with Job as the rope. This may seem to indicate direct involvement on behalf of the spiritual powers and principalities, but the messages contained within offer a different message. The concern many raise is this: If our God is good and loving, why is there so much evil and pain in the world?

The answer from Job is simple: If there is good, there will be bad. We cannot expect only to have good things in our lives. No one is exempt. Faith is not a free pass that rewards believers. Faith is a transformative power that allows us to navigate evil and pain in a new and different way. Belief in God does not raise us above the natural order; it simply means that the natural order has less power over our attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours. In faith, we gain better and stronger coping skills.

When tragedy strikes, the bad has less power and influence to push us to hopelessness and despair. It also encourages us to draw on our relationship with God to find the resilience and hope to face and work through what life is facing us with. Not only that, but as a community of faith we have the gifts amongst us to support us on the journey of grief work. Grief work is the movement from a point of loss, whatever that may be, to a point of being able to live a fulfilling life again. It is important to remember that God doesn’t take the problem away but helps us face and live through the problem.

God gives us everything we need to cope with the problem. And when we stand strong in the face of adversity and loss, we become a powerful witness to the power of God to turn calamity into celebration. Life is no longer a burden to bear but a blessing to share. We do not merely endure. We thrive. Christ in his life demonstrated what it was to live a fully human life and is the example we are called to follow. In enduring and rising above the hurt and hardship, we grow and become more like Christ— the one who suffered and lost it all that we might have the resources and be enabled to come through the things that life throws at us.