Last week, our scripture in worship let us in on the tragic part of Job's story: he loses everything he has (children and property), and even his own health. All this is organized as a sort of a test--to show Satan that Job is more faithful that he belives possible.
We become aware of at least one time that the suffering experienced in a lifetime is not necessarily a result of the sin of that person.
This week, we hear Job asking demanding questions of God. His friends have given him unsatisfactory explanations for his suffering. He has questions for God that he longs to have answered.
The view he has of God--certainly the view of God shared by his friends--isn't big enough for his experience of life.
I think this is how we so often grow in faith, too--the things we thought we believed become unsatisfactory answers, and we're pushed to deepen our relationships with God.
And the beautiful part, as I see it, is that God is way, way deeper (and more complex) than any of the explanations we know how to offer.
Our questions take us into that depth.
They do not disqualify us from the community of those trying to be faithful.
Have questions you asked to God deepened your own relationship with God?
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I have been questioning God much of this year.
I have had a sense of the absence of God much like that part of Job's story.
But what I am finding is that I need to look for God in new ways and new places.
I have learned to look for God, and more importantly, to find God even in the emptiness.
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