"I can't believe in a god who..."

Job 1:1; 2:1-10

¹There was a man in the land of Uz named Job, a man of integrity who feared God and turned from evil….  ^2:1One day the children of God came to stand before the Lord.  The Accuser also came to stand before God.  ²The Lord said to the Accuser, “Where have you been?”

 The Accuser said, “All over the earth."

 ³The Lord said to the Accuser, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is no one like him on the earth, a man of integrity and uprightness, fearing God and turning from evil?  He still maintains his integrity, though you got me to do evil to him for nothing.”

⁴The Accuser answered the Lord, “Skin for skin!  People will do anything to save their lives!  ⁵Put forth your hand and afflict his flesh and bone, and he will curse you to your face!”

⁶The Lord said to the Accuser, “He is in your power.  Only preserve his life.”

⁷The Accuser went out from before the Lord and he struck Job with a terrible case of boils, from the sole of his feet to the crown of his head.  ⁸Job took a shard of pottery to scrape himself, and he began to live in a trash pile. 

⁹His wife said to him, “Do you still hang on to your integrity?  Curse God and die!”

¹⁰He said to her, “You talk like a fool.  Will we receive good from God and not receive evil?” 

In all this, Job did not sin with his mouth.  (my translation)

 

All my Christian life, I've heard people repulse my attempts to convert them, "I can't believe in a God who...."  "If there really were a God, he would never allow..."

 

The other day, on my way to work, I was trying to explain to God (as if I could explain anything to God!) that their point isn't totally invalid.  Bad, awful things happen, horrible things, things that are impossible to explain when you believe in a God who is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, AND all-loving.  Logically, you can posit three of those things AND admit evil; but not all of them.  I haven't endured the worst of calamities, but I have hurt enough that I do sympathize.

 

A great Christian couple I know buried a 16-month-old son after suffering several miscarriages and bringing this child to term only after having this lovely wife stay in bed six months.  Then suddenly the child, this inhumanly beautiful boy, this sweet child, was dead.  I heard the grieving father was heard to say, "Why even bother to pray?"  And to this day I don't blame him  He was overcome with grief, and he was not as damning toward God as Job gets later on in the book.  To his credit, he got past his grief, he stayed strong on faith, and now he and his wife have grown children!

 

But what of those people who have lost their faith because tragedy has just destroyed them?  I knew a psychiatric nurse who would say, after an intake assessment in the hospital where she worked, "If everything that happened to her happened to me, I'd be in a psych hospital too!"

 

Job  lost all his children and all his wordly possessions in one day, and he only said, "I brought nothing into this world, and I can take nothing out.  The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away.  Blessed by the name of the Lord!"  (Job 1:21, my revision)  I'm 56 years old, and I still hope I grow up to be like Job.  I don't think I'm quite there yet!

 

That morning I was patiently trying to educate God, he dropped an insight on me:  that those who lose their faith after a devastating  loss (I'm not talking about deep grief from which you recover and continue patiently, trustingly, stubbornly followin God) then your god has let you down, but your God is not the Lord.  You have been trying to use the Lord as a means to an end, you have set up God as servant to something more important to you. 

 

Your real god is that which is most important to you.  That is what you serve, that is what you worship, and that is the thing from which you expect to get your needs met. 

 

I used to say, "God won't play second fiddle in your orchestra.  He'll sit first violin, or he'll pack up his bow and his instrument and go home."  And that's not because he's an insecure weenie who constantly needs his ego stroked.

 

It's because if I place anything else in first place in my life, anything but God the Lord, I will expect more from that than it can perform, and I will do damage to that, as well as bring devastating pain into my own life!  It's because to praise and worship and serve any other God than the Lord is to hurt ourselves.  That means there can be no thing and no one who means more to me than he does.  That means he must be first, before my daughter, before my wife, before my job, before my country, before my health, before my life.  That means my relationship with him cannot be "I will worship you if".  It means "I will worship you PERIOD!"  If I win, if I lose, if I prosper, if I go down in flames, if I am loved, if I am hated, if my car falls apart and I can't afford another one, if the doctor says "cancer" to me, if the doctor says "cancer" to my wife.

 

Pain happens.  Not God's first choice, I think, but they happen.  So he uses them, because he uses everything available to him to help us grow, grow into his likeness and image.  He wants us to be like him.  And what's he like?  Is he ignorant?  Is  he weak?  Is he lazy?  Is he stupid?  Is he an infant?  Is he a sheep? 

 

He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords!  And he wants you to grow to be like him!  Who are the kings over whom he is to be king?  Us!  Who are the lords over whom  he will be lord?  It's his will for us!  He wants us to be kings!  Why are we not yet?  Because each of us is born with a do-it-yourself kingdom kit.  He's waiting for us to build our kingdom! 

 

He doesn't make it easy, but he makes it possible.  From him we get salvation, we get peace, we get love; we also get that sense of accomplishment, of confidence, to grow into his likeness.  He helps.  We are to grow into helpers.  He gives.  We are to grow into givers.  And it's hard.  It takes work.  It takes time.  It takes courage.  It takes patience.  It takes cussed stubbornness.

 

Honestly, look back on your life.  Aren't the things you're most proud of now the things that were the most uncomfortable then?  Aren't the things of greatest value to you the things that were the hardest to get?

 

Jesus loves me.  But that doesn't mean I won't ever hurt.  In fact, if you read your church history, you'll see greatest heroes of our faith, the ones who seem to be God's greatest favorites, have actually suffered the most.  One day, I intend to meet them, and I'm going to ask them, "Was it worth it?"  I know what they're going to say.

 

And I'm going to greet Jesus.  I'll see the scars, still in his hands, the little prick marks still in his forehead from the crown of thorns.  And I'll say, "Lord, was it worth it?"

 

Do you know what I think he'll say?  I think he'll wrap his arms around me and say, "Will, you're here.  Yes, it was worth it."  That's what he'll say to you too.