Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Smiling (Within) Our Laments

“Yet when I hoped for good, evil came;

when I looked for light, then came darkness.”

~Job 30:26 (NIV).

Job, as we know, is in a very dark place here. And although we’re apt at never having the gall to say we’ve got it (or had it) anywhere near as hard as Job had it, we too have felt this way.

We all have. Evil comes against us all, even in our good responses to life many times. There is about this life no straight justice.

These are “go figure” moments for all of us. And still, we’re loath to give up; wiser, still again, to smile at the irony and press on regardless.

‘Unlucky’ Days

Whilst most of us don’t subscribe to ‘luck’ it is just as well that we view the mystery of life in these ways. Job certainly came to understand that many things of life, and therefore of God, are beyond us mortal human beings.

When darkness surrounds our beings and there is no foreseeable reason for it, we can just humbly smile. What more could we possibly do?

Perhaps we can share our burdens with understanding others, although we pray for better fortune of compassion than Job got. His friends were not too friendly.

Ultimately we share with God. We pour our heart out to the Spirit that commends us mysteriously for doing this. We only know it later, as we’re open with ourselves, and are therefore open to God—we’ve been saved (again!) from our torment, chagrin and difficulty.

God loves it, in us; that acceptance of the heart that selects for Spiritual blessing as opposed to further anguish. We go to God anytime. God is always there.

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.

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