On Job's House

As I begin my fast I am thinking of suffering. As I seek the Lord for guidance in my life, I am not tempted to ask, why me? I read an article about Job's House (Paul David Tripp, The Journal of Biblical Counseling Fall 2004) that has helped me this week. On Sunday we were introduced to the subject of praise in a study of Judah. I left the sanctuary and I ran right smack into despair. I was confronted with the profound question, "where is there praise in sorrow?" Sometimes there is no name for sorrow, no explanation, no one to blame. The author used the Latin word anomie which translates as "there is no name for it," and in his words, "there is no name for what has happened to me." I identified with this. I cannot tell people what is going on with me, because there is no name for it. I cannot tell you the reason why and if it seems that I am placing blame some where, that is wrong. But I am asking questions, that is different. Honest questions. I am not asking people to take sides. There is no explanation for what I am experiencing this side of heaven.

In Romans 8:20 -23 we find within a description of future glory, our reason for praise, a picture of anomie, our broken fallen world. It tell us;

For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. It tells us creation is subject to frustration, "nothing in this world works as it is supposed to. It is, in fact a tragically broken comos. Brokenness is everywhere." The passage tells us the creation is in bondage to decay, "everything is dying." It groan[s]ing as in the pains of childbirth. The suffering can be so great it grabs you and demands your attention.

The author insists everyone lives in Job's house. He insists we are uncomfortable with suffering; ours and other people's. I insist too. In our prayer for others we rush to ask God to fix their circumstances, to change the situation, to bring relief. We fail to deal with the person in the middle of suffering when we pray for the outer reality to change.

"suffering is always a vat of temptation... the person in the middle needs more than a situation fix...We need to remember Job was restored in the midst of his suffering."

The author called the Corinthian church the First Church of Job's House. "It's not the kind of church you would want to attend. It was riddled with division, broken up by immorality, ravaged by messed up marriages, and totally confused to its relationship to the surround culture."

And in the 15th chapter of the book Paul address the only thing that can turn the tide of suffering.

1 Corinthians 15:19 (NIV)

If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

Paul tells us there has to be more than this. It isn't about fixing this life.

"Ministry and theology are not about rearranging the chairs in Job's house. Everything is Job's house screams for more than this. If there is not more, than there is no hope. We need to learn when we bring eternity into the now we are not changing the subject. We are addressing the subject the only way it can be addressed."

In the 15th Chapter of Corinthians Paul introduces the resurrection and the promise of future glory. The author says that from eternity we will look back and see Christ in the midst of our suffering. He invites us to see that we are on the way to eternity weeping, but God has given us the end of the story while we are still in the middle of it, in the midst of our suffering. We have hope. We are kept in Job's House to share that hope, to share the end of the story and to show others by just being there in the midst of our suffering that Jesus is with us.

When I sat with my neighbor and listened to her deep sorrow for the first time I could listen and not have the need to fix it. I did suggest things for her to do, I gave her a book, but I knew my purpose was to just sit and be present to her, to let her know I am no different from her, I live in Job's house too. I am not a fixed up Christian with all the answers; I am a broken vessel that Christ dwells in. I have a future hope to point to, a God who draws me closer everyday to the time when He will wipe away my tears and tell me the suffering is over. But for now I will sit with those who suffer and I cannot pretend I can make the suffering go away, our hope is not in this world.