By David ReayThursday 7 Aug 2014LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 0 minutes
Transcript:
Read Job 13:1-5
1 “Look,I have seen all this with my own eyes
and heard it with my own ears,and now I understand.
2 I know as much as you do.
You are no better than I am.
3 As for me,I would speak directly to the Almighty.
I want to argue my case with God himself.
4 As for you,you smear me with lies.
As physicians,you are worthless quacks.
5 If only you could be silent!
That’s the wisest thing you could do. (NLT)
It is not an easy thing to help someone else in trouble. We may be tempted to not even try because we figure we can be of so little help. The situation is beyond us. And yet we need to challenge such a mindset with the realisation that God can work great things through us: we are not alone.
Then again,we may be tempted to get stuck in and reckon our job is to fix the trouble,spell out the solution,clear up the mystery. And that,too,is unhelpful. Job is proof of that. His friends were trying to explain why he was suffering out of their supposedly superior knowledge. Job reminds them that he knows as much as they do. It is not explanations he needs,but a reassurance of God’s presence.
When faced the utter brokenness of others’ lives,we naturally want to resolve it all,to put the person back together again. God may do this-in time. He may even use us to do so. But in the short term at least it is more likely that our task is not to mend the person’s brokenness but rather to hold it tightly. Not to fix it all up but to be a grace-filled presence in the midst of brokenness.
As children,we got hurt at times. How good it was for our mothers or fathers to hold us as we cried. That grazed knee or bruised forehead wasn’t healed,but the hug made it bearable. Not a bad model for our own adult burden bearing.
Blessings
David Reay