Every time I read the book of Job, I see something else and learn something new that relates to my situation of chronic illness. When I read Job this year, I was in a few weeks of level, (relatively) easy terrain in between valleys–an unusual experience that, if I’m honest, I didn’t know how to […]
“You are not your diagnosis.” Have you heard this phrase? Commonly spoken to chronic illness warriors both in and outside the Christian community, it’s true. We are not defined by our illness. Our limitations. Our losses. Our physical changes. On the converse, we’re not defined by our health either. Our abilities. Our talents. Our physical […]
About a year ago I wrote a series of posts called Lessons From Job, sharing things God taught me from my devotional reading of the book of Job. I’m following the same Bible reading schedule this year and recently came through Job again. This time God spoke some new truths to my soul that encouraged […]
“So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.” Job 2:13 The book of Job, while offering a study of human suffering, also presents a study of human emotion, particularly the emotions experienced […]
We study the life of Job with the gift of perspective: we know how his story ends. We know what goes on behind the scenes. We know, as readers, what he as the main character never learns in his lifetime, a biblical study of dramatic irony. We watch and learn from his life like […]
We’ve already looked at Job’s response when he lost his possessions, his family, and his health. He responded with humble worship not only because he had a right perspective of God, but also because he had placed his security in God. His security was not in this world. Not in his possessions, not in his […]
After Job’s expression of worship in Chapter 2, his next speech is a poetic curse on the day of his birth: “Why did I not die at birth?Why did I not perish when I came from the womb?. . .Why is light given to him who is in misery,And life to the bitter in soul […]
“In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.” Job 1:22 When we’re walking through a valley of suffering, it’s easy to look at God with bitterness and maybe even anger. We’re tempted to let our pained cries of “Why, God?” turn into angry fist-shaking or sullen back-turning. Satan (2:5) and Job’s […]
In his book Changed Into His Image, Jim Berg writes, When we take a tea bag, place it in a teacup, and fill the cup with hot water, the water activates the tea in the bag, unleashing its taste into the water around it. The hot water didn’t create the taste; it merely revealed, or […]
Why do we suffer? This is a question that every one of us asks at some point in our lives, whether in the face of our own suffering or the suffering of someone we love. Job asked it after he suddenly and (seemingly) unfairly lost his possessions, his children, and his health (Job 23:1-7). Why […]
The Valley