How to Complain to God - Judging with Job

I was walking my dog, Ebony, when a cascade of thoughts came raining down. It was a brisk morning and I was enjoying the cold quiet air in my backyard. Suddenly I began thinking of a myriad of troubling things. I was thinking about my house and it's needed repairs, the plumbing issues I have been dreading, which have now arrived, the weather and my work which is contingent upon it, and bills...bills...bills. Wave upon wave of disconcerting thoughts and concerns entered into my mind, as I stood unguarded at the floodgates of my imagination.

I began wondering why the "Cosmos" had me here, at this place and time, and why it seemed I am to stay. I was tempted to complain and I did. I complained about the circumstances that I, and apparently many of my friends, appear to be in. I did not however complain about God. I am careful not to do that. Although we can be upset at our circumstance, We still must rely on The One who allows them to be. In many ways what we are is indeed the result of our choices. So often our choices do not turn out as we imagined them, though. This is why we must always be grateful for the Divine help we continually receive. Because God's grace is not for happiness and peace without difficulty it is for happiness and peace in spiteof difficulty.

Although the incidents of his life were Satan's doing perhaps Job of the Old Testament can help us see the most godly way to approach the bad circumstances of our lives:

"Even today my complaint is bitter;
his hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.
If only I knew where to find him;
if only I could go to his dwelling!

I would state my case before him
and fill my mouth with arguments.
I would find out what he would answer me,
and consider what he would say.

Would he oppose me with great power?
No, he would not press charges against me.
There an upright man could present his case before him,
and I would be delivered forever from my judge.

"But if I go to the east, he is not there;
if I go to the west, I do not find him.
When he is at work in the north, I do not see him;
when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him.

But he knows the way that I take;
when he has tested me,
I will come forth as gold."

Job 23:1-10

"...as long as I have life within me,
the breath of God in my nostrils,
my lips will not speak wickedness,
and my tongue will utter no deceit."

Job 27:3-4

When we view our testing as refining...in order to bring out the "gold " in us, we get a perspective with which to be grateful, Job gives us words to live by and an example to follow.

Pax et Bonum