Job Almighty

Do you have an arm like God’s,
and can your voice thunder like his?
Then adorn yourself with glory and splendor,
and clothe yourself in honor and majesty.
Job 40:9-10 (NIV)

It has been a long time since I’ve watched the film Bruce Almighty with Jim Carrey and Morgan Freeman. It’s time to watch it again. The comedy tells of a comical Job-like character (Jim Carrey) who has a terrible, awful, no-good, very bad day. Like Job, Bruce blames God for not answering his prayers and allowing the bad things to happen. So, God shows up (Morgan Freeman) and offers Bruce the opportunity to take on the job himself. God gives Job the job of hearing and answering prayers.

I thought of the film today as God continues His response to Job’s contentious complaints. In today’s chapter, God waxes a bit sarcastic, telling Job that if he thinks he is up to going toe-to-toe with the Almighty, then he should “adorn himself with glory and splendor and clothe himself with honor and majesty” and take over God’s Department of Justice. If Job can prove that he can contend with the wickedness of humanity and dole out eternal judgement on evil, then God says He will admit that Job could handle things on his own.

The underlying theme of God’s rhetorical questions has already been understood by Job. At the beginning of today’s chapter God gives Job the opportunity to speak for himself in response to God’s first discourse. Job chooses to humbly cover his mouth.

There is a scene in Bruce Almighty that regularly comes up in conversation between Wendy and me. A young boy is getting bullied and beat up by his peers. He cries out for God to help. Bruce grants the boys wish and with divine power he turns on his attackers and metes out just punishment. Bruce feels pretty good about the outcome. God tells Bruce that His plan for the boy was that he would become a gifted poet who channeled his pain into beautiful words that glorified God and blessed multitudes. Having learned to use personal power and violence to render others to submission and raise his personal profile, the boy would now become a bully himself.

The scene is a simple metaphor, as were all of Jesus’ parables. Yet, like Jesus’ parables, it captures a much larger truth that I find relevant to the Job story. Throughout the Great Story, God reminds me that there is both purpose and spiritual progress in the pain of this earthly journey. Bruce learns that when he simply gives everyone the answers to their prayers it doesn’t have the results he expects. Quite the opposite, it results in chaos.

Our ways are not God’s ways.

In the quiet this morning, I reflect on over a half century of life journey and cognitive memories. I have been incredibly blessed in the grand scheme of things. For that I’m perpetually grateful. I have also suffered through the consequences of bad choices, unforeseen tough times, and negative natural disasters that my insurance agent still refers to in Job-like fashion as “acts of God.” When I reflect on which life experiences had the most to teach me, the events that shaped me into a more mature and gracious human being, it is the tough times. The stretches of Easy Street ironically bring out the worst in me.

In a few minutes I will join Wendy in the kitchen and peruse the headlines speaking of greater contention, conflict, and political chaos than has been experienced in my lifetime. Has this chaos emerged from a nation of people struggling to survive day-to-day, or have they emerged from a nation of people who have known greater comfort, affluence and prosperity than any people group in the history of human civilization?

I have come to the conclusion that getting everything I want isn’t a good thing in the long run, while suffering has consistently been spiritually better for me than I would have possibly imagined.