Closing Argument

September 15, 2023 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

“Oh, that I had someone to hear me!
I sign now my defense—let the Almighty answer me;
let my accuser put his indictment in writing.”
Job 31:35 (NIV)

A year or so ago I was talking with a life-long friend. We were discussing the state of cancel culture that exists today in which a person can lose their job and be effectively pilloried for foolish choices made when he or she was young. My friend expressed that this was an ever-present fear, confessing that if even a fraction of the stupid things done during high school were to come to light, their life would be utterly ruined. My friend was not exaggerating. I know some of the stories. Today’s cancel culture would have a field day.

Today’s chapter is the third and final phase of Job’s closing defense arguments in his mock trial with God. It is actually a poetically beautiful summation in which Job makes seven “if” statements that assert his blamelessness. In Biblical numerology, seven is the number of “completion” and Job’s seven “if” statements echo the Mosaic laws of retaliation in Exodus and Leviticus. In essence, Job is saying “if” I am guilty of breaking any of these laws of morality, community, or justice “then” let me suffer the consequences, either natural or prescribed by law. He asserts, however, that he is blameless (not sinless, but blameless) in each case and calls upon the Almighty to prove His case. Job then verbally puts his John Hancock on his defense and calls on God to make His case.

As I read through Jobs defense in the quiet this morning, three prevailing thoughts crowded my mind. First, like my friend’s very real fear regarding cancel culture, I am definitely not blameless. I can easily be accused and found guilty of a large majority, if not all, of the seven moral assertions Job makes.

Second, I continue to be reminded that God has not accused Job of anything. In fact, the whole of what God has said about Job amounts to praise for Job’s faith, blamelessness, and goodness.

Third, the whole of Job’s argument rests on a world-view in which there is always a cause-and-effect to suffering. In his case, Job’s suffering is happening precisely because his faith, blamelessness, and goodness placed him in the crosshairs of the evil one.

As a disciple of Jesus, I can’t escape the fact that Jesus told His followers to expect unjust suffering just as He would unjustly suffer.

From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law… Matt 16:21

Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” Matt 17:11-12

“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me…” Matt 24:9

To Peter, Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” John 21:18

Along my spiritual journey I have had to embrace the truth that Jesus never promised His followers an earthly life of health, wealth, and earthly prosperity. Quite the opposite, in fact. Jesus told His followers to expect trouble, difficulty, persecution, suffering, injustice, and even a death one doesn’t deserve. This earthly life, Jesus told His followers, was simply a shadow of the Life to come. If my treasure is here on this earth, then I am naturally going to feel trouble, difficulty, persecution, suffering, and injustice more acutely. If my treasure is in heaven, where Jesus tells me to place it, then I am going to consider any trouble, difficulty, persecution, suffering, and injustice completely differently.

It even changes the way I consider Job’s suffering.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Generalities and Perceptions

September 14, 2023 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

Yet when I hoped for good, evil came;
when I looked for light, then came darkness.
Job 30:26 (NIV)

I was listening to a song yesterday that hadn’t been in my queue in many years. I listened to it a lot back in the day. It’s about the unexpected joy of meeting “the one” when life is a simple as getting married, settling down, and having children. I played this song a lot when Wendy and I were engaged because “the one” the songwriter meets is a girl with “mahogany hair, and eyes of sweet amethyst,” which is just so Wendy. The song so aptly captured those days.

As I drove and sang along with the lyrics it struck me that it does all seem so simple when you’re high on love and, as my friend the marriage therapist says, “The pixie dust hasn’t worn off yet.” It does seem so simple at that waypoint on life’s journey: get married, buy a house, have children. But, things don’t always happen as envisioned. Wendy and I got married, bought the cute little house, but the children part would never come to fruition.

In a moment of synchronicity, shorty after I contemplated these things, I found out that a young person I know has been diagnosed with cancer. I officiated their wedding just a few summers ago.

Sometimes, life doesn’t turn out like we envisioned.

Today’s chapter is part two of Job’s closing arguments in the mock trial he envisions having with God. In yesterday’s chapter he waxed nostalgic about how good his life was before the fateful day when his life was turned upside down; The day everything went from being blessed to being cursed. Now, Job contrasts the realities of his suffering with “the good ol’ days” when life was as simple as doing the right thing, and being blessed for it.

Amidst the bitterness of his suffering, Job once again accuses God of being the perpetrator of his misery. He not only accuses God of attacking him ruthlessly, but also of standing there staring and gloating like some kind of psychopath.

Job then states that nothing changed in his life or behavior that would justify the curse his life has become. For so long, the Santa Clause formula worked for him. Job was a good man. He was generous and gracious to those less fortunate, and his life was blessed with wealth, health, and honor in his community. Nothing changed in his behavior, he argues, and yet the blessings were stolen away and the terror of physical suffering became his 24/7 reality. Based on his previous experience, Job had every reason to expect a life of goodness and light, but he now finds himself experiencing nothing but evil and darkness.

Sometimes, life doesn’t turn out like we envisioned.

As I meditated on this reality in the quiet this morning, I was reminded of a couple of observations I’ve made along my life journey. Those visions I had of how life would turn out are based on generalities and perceptions. Yes, for a large group of humans, life appears to follow a general pattern: childhood, high school, college, career, marriage, children, climbing the ladder, empty nest, grandchildren, retirement, and golden years. And, my perception of those around me is that everyone has a “normal” life in which these things happen routinely with little trouble.

But generalities and perceptions are not reality. I’ve been blessed to spend most of my life in intimate friendships with a large handful of very different friends. A casual observer could easily look at any of these friends and perceive a blessed life following the general pattern. However, they don’t know the things I know about my life, or the lives of my friends. They haven’t witnessed the struggles, the tears, the bitter disappointments, the chronic physical suffering, the diagnoses, the chemo, the family insanity, the miscarriages, the lay-offs and terminations, the affairs, the coming out of the closet, the marital struggles, the deep depressions or the suicide attempts. These are all part of the the life realities I’ve experienced walking alongside the every day “blessed” lives of friends and loved ones. Yet these negative realities and struggles are hidden from the casual observer who simply sees individuals and couples whose lives fit the general pattern and appear relatively blessed and trouble-free.

In the person of Job I find an extreme black and white contrast. Once again, I find that we as humans like things reduced to simple binaries, and Job gives us what we like: he boils his circumstances down to a simple black-and-white. The past was good, his present is bad. He was in the light, but now everything is darkness. I confess that life and the evil one have thrown Job an exceptionally wicked curveball. Yet, I also know from 57 years of experience that life is not a simple binary. Even the most apparently blessed lives have painful struggles. In the midst of my deepest suffering, I still have blessings to which I can desperately cling.

~~Sometimes, life doesn’t turn out like we envisioned~~.

Life rarely turns out like we envisioned.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Nostalgia

September 13, 2023 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

“Oh, for the days when I was in my prime,
when God’s intimate friendship blessed my house,
when the Almighty was still with me
and my children were around me…”
Job 29:4-5 (NIV)

Over the past year or two, Wendy and I have been observing and discussing how the two of us think differently about time. As an Enneagram Eight, Wendy is future oriented. She is always thinking about what is ahead and what needs to be done to ensure that everything runs smoothly once we get there. As an Enneagram Four, I have a past orientation. I’m a lover of history and I’ve always had a freakish kind of memory. To this I can pull up a photo of my first grade class and tell you the name of pretty much every classmate. I could also point out the house where about half of them lived.

So, yesterday while grocery shopping Wendy asked me if we had a bottle of cranberry juice left on the shelf of the pantry because I had just opened a new bottle from the pantry the day before. In Wendy’s future orientation one should naturally make note of these things so that when we’re at the store we can get one, if needed, to make sure there’s at lest one on the shelf at all times for that morning when we run out at breakfast. I think there was one more on the pantry shelf when I opened a new bottle the day before. I think there was. I don’t know. But, I distinctly remember when I was five and we had this corner cupboard with a lazy susan, and things would fall off in the back of the cupboard and because I was the smallest my. mom would have me crawl onto the lazy susan and she’d spin me around to retrieve the fallen cans from the bottom of the cupboard in the back. That, I remember.

Herein lies the issue.

For that past twenty-some chapters, the ever-suffering Job has been sitting on his local refuse burn pile telling his three amigos that he would like to have his day in court with God. He’d like to put God on the witness stand and cross-examine the Almighty because Job is convinced that he has been wronged and God is the perpetrator. With today’s chapter, we enter a new phase of the Job story. Starting today, and with the following two chapters, Job makes his closing arguments in the metaphorical trial he’s been living out inside his head and heart.

Like a defense attorney speaking to me, his audience and jury, Job begins with a trip down Memory Lane. He waxes nostalgic of the days before that day when a rogue derecho killed all of his children and, simultaneously, some neighborhood gangs stole all of his flocks and fortune. He’s pulling the heart-strings of this past-oriented jury member. I feel it, Job. Oh how good life was, back in the day when I rode my Schwinn five-speed Stingray to the 7-Eleven on Douglas Avenue. It was a half-block east on Madison, hang a right and head south on 31st street, then just three blocks past the Cron’s house to Douglas. The 7-Eleven was on the northwest corner. It used to be a DX station. I’d fill up the Briggs and Stratton push mower. Gas was about 25 cents a gallon. But the DX closed and it became a 7-Eleven where almost every day in the summer I bought a Big Gulp for a quarter that I’d probably earned doing Scott Borg’s paper route at the VA hospital that morning.

Oh…I’m sorry…we were talking about Job, weren’t we?

Along my life journey, I’ve observed that it’s easy to glorify the past, especially for those of us who have a natural bent toward nostalgia. When life gets complicated, when I’m suffering in the present and find it difficult to see any hope for the future, I can reach back to the past like a drug. It provides cherished memories and drums up nostalgia-fueled good feelings. And, that’s what Job does in today’s chapter. The chapter follows an ancient poetic structure in which Job not only waxes nostalgic about how blessed he was, but at the center, he extolls the virtues of his generosity and benevolence (in defense of his friend Eli’s accusation in 22:9):

I was blessed (vss 2-6)
I was honored (vss 7-10)
I was generous and benevolent to the poor and needy (vss 11-17)
I was blessed (vss 18-20)
I was honored (vss 21-25)

In the quiet this morning, I am reminded that my natural bents can end up with crooked and unintended consequences. The glorification of what was can easily lead to me not being fully present in what is nor prepared for what is to come. For Job, I wonder if his trip down Memory Lane is essentially serving to emotionally pick at the scabs of his present suffering and fuel the fire of his resentment. I have learned along my life journey that sometimes I have to will and to discipline myself to be fully present in the moment, and give time and energy to preparing for what’s ahead. Gratefully, I have a partner who provides me with a really good example to follow.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Wisdom & Foolishness

September 12, 2023 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

Where then does wisdom come from?
Where does understanding dwell?
Job 28:20 (NIV)

Wisdom and foolishness.

The ancients pondered these contrasting character qualities long and hard. So much thought and contemplation were given to them that there is a whole genre of ancient writing known as Wisdom Literature. Job is a classic of the Wisdom genre.

Shakespeare used the motifs of wisdom and foolishness to great effect. He often portrayed his rich and powerful characters with fatal, foolish flaws while reserving some of the most wise insights to characters who were classic fools.

I don’t find that contemporary culture thinks much about wisdom and foolishness in the classic sense. We think about fame and fortune. We value success and popularity. We strive for appearances and for avoiding failure that would result in social humiliation. Being wise is considered an honorable trait, of course. No one pursues foolishness. Yet, the world by-and-large doesn’t dwell on attaining wisdom or understanding foolishness. I went to the Amazon’s book section and did a search for “wisdom.” Pretty much every book that shows up is rooted and cloaked in Judeo-Christian or other ancient spiritual traditions. There are some “it” Christian authors. There are some more modern thinkers like Tolstoy and T.E. Lawrence. There’s not a single “it” influencer in popular culture on the cover of a book hawking the virtues of wisdom or the hidden traps of foolishness. No Oprah. Not even a Kardashian.

One of the keys to unpacking the book of Job is to understand that the author constructed it using different elements. Job’s and his friends have conversed in three rounds of back and forth discourses and ended in a stalemate. The ancient Hebrew writer now inserts a classic Hebrew wisdom poem before entering the second major section of the book in which there will be a trinity of monologues from Job, his friend Eli, and finally, God.

The ancient Hebrews liked to construct poetry and songs in such a way that the center of the text contains the central theme. Today’s chapter serves that function. The heart of the Job story is about gaining wisdom, and the author explains that wisdom can’t be mined by human means, nor can it be bought and sold like a commodity. Wisdom is found in the fear of the Lord and the shunning of evil. Embedded in this conclusion is both a nod back to the beginning of the story in which three times Job is described as a man who “feared the Lord” and “shunned evil” (1:1, 1:8, 2:3). It is also a foreshadowing of the final climax of the story in which God will have the final word.

In the quiet this morning, I found myself contemplating who I’ve encountered along my life journey whom I would consider wise, and those I’ve known who I would label a fool. As I contemplated this, it struck me that not one wise person I know was perfect. In fact, one of the life lessons I’ve gained from being associated with the wise is the necessary disappointment of learning that even the wise make foolish mistakes and have blind spots. I’ve come to believe that this is the true lesson of Solomon. As I tried to think of a fool I know who became wise, I had to think hard. In the few individuals that came to mind, there was always an epiphany event that preceded the life change. There was a gracious God moment, even if they weren’t otherwise religious, in which they walked away from their foolish path and pursued a path of wisdom.

And, that’s exactly the conclusion of the author’s wisdom poem. To “shun evil” I’ve learned that there is a divine grace woven with corresponding human will that is required. But it’s the divine grace that is the source, both the beginning and the end of wisdom and everything in between. It’s this humble acknowledgment repeatedly embraced that forms the path to wisdom.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Morality Tales

September 11, 2023 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

I will never admit you are in the right;
till I die, I will not deny my integrity.
Job 27:5 (NIV)

In my previous post, I mentioned that I was surprised no one has tried to stage the book of Job. As this thought continued to swirl inside my head, I realized where the connection came from in my brain. My senior thesis in college was about the decline of medieval religious dramas. Admittedly, this topic is not something that sparks the interest of any normal person…or any crazy person for that matter.

There was an entire genre of plays in the 14th to 16th centuries known simply as Morality Plays. They typically had a protagonist who was being torn between virtues and vices, with angels and demons present to persuade the protagonist toward the conflicting desires. It’s an expanded version of the commonly referenced motif of conscience with an angel on one shoulder and a demon on the other. The story arc of Morality Plays followed a pattern that you can still find lying beneath movies and novels today: temptation, fall, and redemption.

In that sense, Job has the distinct flavor of an ancient Morality Play, but with the twist of a protagonist who finds himself having experienced the consequences of the fall without ever having chosen to succumb to any tempting vice. This is the crux of the debate between Job and his friends. In their world-view, life is one big Morality Play in which a person’s suffering is always connected to that person’s vices.

Today’s chapter is Job’s summation of the back-and-forth conversation between Job and his three friends. He opened with a statement (chapter three), there were three rounds of discourses, and in today’s chapter Job gets the final word.

In his wrap up, Job maintains his innocence and integrity. He basically holds fast in stating that he had done nothing so wicked that he deserved his suffering. What’s fascinating is that he then goes on to agree with his friends’ premise that the wicked deserve, and ultimately receive, their just desserts. Job finds himself an exception to the general rule of his and his friends’ moral world-view.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself circling back to the concept of rules and exceptions that I’ve written about before. Life is filled with general observable patterns in which choices and consequences connect both positively (I choose to do the right thing, and I sleep soundly with a clear conscience) and negatively (I choose to do the wrong thing, have a guilty conscience, get caught, and face negative reciprocations of my wrong-doing). These patterns are the foundation of Morality Tales both in medieval times as well as today. But there are exceptions to those general rules in a fallen world in which sinful individuals have the free will to make choices. Amanda Knox was railroaded and convicted of a murder she didn’t commit. Jack the ripper was never found nor punished.

Jesus was adamant with his disciples that we are to reserve judgment of others. Job’s friends have made judgments about Job without having all of the knowledge or facts of the situation. Job has made judgments about God without having all of the knowledge or facts of the situation. As a disciple of Jesus, I’m called to humbly admit when I don’t have the right to judge another person, and to graciously forgive when I do. Jesus offers no exemptions to the Law of Love.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

The Thread

September 8, 2023 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

“And these are but the outer fringe of his works;
how faint the whisper we hear of him!
Who then can understand the thunder of his power?”
Job 26:14 (NIV)

I am surprised that I’ve never seen anyone try to stage the book of Job.

Job and his three friends remain sitting on the ash heap where people burn their garbage. What a setting.

Job, emaciated, almost naked, and covered head-to-foot with festering sores, continues to scrape at his scabs with pieces of broken pottery. His friends, healthy, hardy, and dressed in their fine robes sit silently around him. What a visual.

For twenty-two chapters, Job and his friends have gone back and forth in contemplation of his tragic circumstances and intense suffering. With Bill’s brief words in yesterday’s chapter, the friends appear to have nothing further to say. In today’s chapter, Job replies specifically to Bill. The Hebrew pronouns Job uses are singular rather than plural.

It appears that Job is at the end of his patience with his friends as the conversation wanes. Job’s reply drips with bitter sarcasm:

“How you have helped the powerless!

How you have saved the arm that is feeble!

What advice you have offered to one without wisdom!

And what great insight you have displayed!

Who has helped you utter these words?

And whose spirit spoke from your mouth?”

Job then proceeds to poetically contemplate God’s immense power that lies beyond human understanding. It feels as if he is talking more to himself than to his three friends. If I were directing this as a scene on stage, I would block it in such a way that it became clear Job is delivering his words to himself, to the audience like a soliloquy in Shakespeare. Why? Because he alone is privy to the depth of this insight. He sees God revealed in creation: the vastness of space, the rage of a thunderstorm, and the untamed seas. Job then recognizes that all of this is but “the outer fringe” of God’s power. He foreshadows the words of Paul who describes God as the One who can do “exceeding, abundantly, beyond all that we could ask or imagine.”

What is fascinating about Job’s beautiful description of God’s power that lies beyond imagination is that back in chapter 11 his friend Z accused Job of being unable to fathom the mysteries of God. In ten verses, Job has proved Z wrong. It is fitting that we don’t hear from Z again. In his painful cries out to God, Job may not even recognize that his suffering is giving him depths of clarity and insight to the divine that his friends will never fathom. There are spiritual insights learned amidst suffering that cannot be learned by any other means. This is why suffering is a requisite for spiritual maturity. This is why I believe Job’s is speaking to himself; He is speaking to me.

Throughout Job’s story, if I am willing to see it, I am witness to his spiritual maturation. His friends, confident in their status, education, and false sense of security, remain unchanged.

When I was a young man, I thought I had things figured out. Then life happened. Moral failure, financial failure, and divorce were among the many things that sobered me up to just how little I actually knew. Job’s suffering was perpetrated by the evil one. My suffering has largely been perpetrated by my own poor choices. Nevertheless, along my spiritual journey, suffering through the consequences of my own actions, I have humbly realized that all that I know is but the “outer fringe.” God is exceeding, abundantly beyond all that I can imagine. I am the bleeding woman simply trying to reach out with my finger to make contact with that single piece of thread dangling off the hem at the bottom of Jesus’ robe. I feel Job reaching for it, as well.

And, just that touch changes everything.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Worm Theology

September 7, 2023 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

“If even the moon is not bright
and the stars are not pure in his eyes,
how much less a mortal, who is but a maggot—
a human being, who is only a worm!”
Job 25:5-6 (NIV)

I spent most of my 20s and 30s trying to figure myself out. The truth that I came to embrace during those years is that the journey of self-discovery will not end on this earthly sojourn. I will forever be peeling back layers and honing my thoughts, words, and behaviors to be like Jesus. It was during those early years, however, that I learned the tools and habits that have been invaluable in the process.

One of the things that I was quick to discover in those early days of self-discovery was my shame. The American Heritage Dictionary defines shame as “a pervasive, negative emotional state, usually originating in childhood, marked by chronic self-reproach and a sense of personal failure.” In working with a friend and therapist, I was assigned to name my own personal shame. “If your core pain wore one of those “Hello, My Name Is” name tags,” my friend asked. “What would you write?” After pondering on it and journaling about it for some time the answer emerged: “Not Enough.” In my personal experience, the “sense of personal failure” is not because I have done something wrong, but because there is something inherently wrong with me, and that inherent flaw means that I myself, and all that I do, are perpetually “not enough.”

One of the basic tenets of the Great Story is that human beings are sinful individuals living in a fallen world. A theological term often used for this is “total depravity.” Romans 3:23 is an oft quoted verse to describe it: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” It is easy, I discovered, for shame to take the concept of total depravity and run with it, wallow in it, and allow it to perpetuate a cycle of shame that becomes spiritually, mentally, and relationally unhealthy. Others have tagged this “Worm Theology.”

Today’s very short chapter is his friend, Bill’s, third and final statement to Job, and it aptly summarizes the disconnect between what Job and his three amigos have been saying. Bill describes Worm Theology really well. We’re all just maggots. We’re all just worms. We’re all worthless and Job should just accept his tragedy and suffering as the deserved ends of worthless worm.

Of course, Bill is only making Job’s case even stronger. The three amigos have not suffered as Job has. So, is it just Job that’s the worthless worm? If we’re all just worthless worms, then why haven’t the three amigos suffered a similar fate?

Along my spiritual journey, I have found the truth of human sinfulness to be like so many other things in life. I can take it to one extreme and end up in Worm Theology. I can also take it to the other extreme and find myself denying the truth and embracing a false sense of self-righteousness. Along my journey of self-discovery and in my study of the Great Story, I found the truth in the tension between the two extremes. Yes, I am a sinful human being. Yes, I am “not enough” to attain spiritual righteousness by human effort and means. But neither and I a worthless worm. That’s the beauty of what Jesus taught and the beauty of the sacrifice He made. “For God so loved…” me “…that He gave His one and only Son.” Why would Jesus sacrifice Himself for me if there wasn’t something he found lovable and valuable enough to make that sacrifice?

In the quiet this morning, I am grateful for the things I’ve learned along this journey. I’m glad for the work of self-discovery and maturation that brought me to my current waypoint on life’s road. I’m excited to find what God has for me out there on the horizon. No matter what it is, I’ve learned that I can trust God in and through it. I trust the best is yet to come when this earthly journey is finished, and the eternal journey truly begins.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Life’s Injustices

September 6, 2023 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

“Why does the Almighty not set times for judgment?
Why must those who know him look in vain for such days?”
Job 24:1 (NIV)

There is a classic, oft told, story in my family. My sister (the only girl in the family) and our older brother Tim were in the living room sitting apart from one another. Tim claims that my sister would, without provocation, scream, “MOM! TIM IS HITTING ME!” Mom would rush to the living room to reprimand and punish Tim while Jody gloated with satisfaction at getting him in trouble.

Welcome, children, to a lesson in injustice.

One of the many problems in this fallen world is that of injustice. One does not have to look far to find injustice. We have a neighbor at the lake who repeatedly treads on the rights and property of others. One of my neighbors has been repeatedly unsuccessful at getting the city, county, or lake officials to do anything about it. “I’ve given up,” he commented to me. “Nobody cares.”

Of course, this is a relatively small dispute among neighbors about property. Look at the headlines and you can find all sorts of larger scale issues. There are rule makers (on both sides of the aisle) who make rules they break themselves. There are double standards (on both sides of the aisle) in which political enemies are prosecuted while political friends get away with wrongdoing. Law enforcement sometimes look the other way and compounding a victim’s suffering. Law enforcements sometimes show up with a SWAT team to arrest a non-violent individual for political reasons.

Life is filled with injustice.

Today’s chapter completes the first of Job’s discourses in the third round of conversation with this three friends. Job, who feels that he is suffering unjustly at the hands of God, begins by complaining that you can’t make a court appointment with the Almighty. It would be nice, he reasons, if one could see the wicked get their just desserts. Injustice happens all around, and Job bemoans the fact that God appears to be silent and unconcerned. In the end, both the wicked who get away with it and the righteous who suffer end up in the grave. I couldn’t help but hear echoes of the Sage of Ecclesiastes in Job’s complaint:

And I saw something else under the sun:

In the place of judgment—wickedness was there,
in the place of justice—wickedness was there.

In the quiet this morning I found myself recounting the many personal examples of injustice I have experienced along my life journey. I’m grateful that I have not been victimized by injustice on a large scale. Still, I do share Job’s wish. It would be nice if human justice was more just. It would be nice to see divine justice on an earthly level.
As a follower of Jesus, I’m mindful that Jesus spoke often of the Day of Judgment when justice will be doled out for eternity. Unlike Job, I don’t believe my desire to see divine justice is in vain. I have faith that what Jesus promised will, indeed, come to fruition. In the meantime, I will encounter injustice in this fallen world just as humans have been experiencing it throughout history. My experience is not the exception, but the rule. I believe this is why the story of Job resonates for everyone who grapples with life’s injustices. Just as I have faith that Jesus is exactly who He said He was, that He rose from the dead and holds the promise of eternity, so I have faith that one day all of earthly wickedness will receive divine justice. In the meantime, I hear Jesus calling me to daily live out the mission given through the prophet Micah: to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.

I’m also glad to say that my siblings enjoy a loving relationship and have embraced mercy over justice for all of those childhood infractions!

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Peeps and Projections

September 5, 2023 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

“If only I knew where to find him;
if only I could go to his dwelling!”
Job 23:3 (NIV)

It’s been a lovely and lazy Labor Day weekend for Wendy and me. For years, we’ve had a standing date with some of our favorite peeps at the lake. After years of doing it together, it’s has become an annual waypoint to mark both the change of seasons and as well as another year on this life journey. It’s always a joy.

As I had kind of switched off from my normal routine, one of the things I allowed myself to do was to explore a little more deeply into social media. I read things people were posting and tweeting, and then read replies. I read things from “influencers” on both sides of the political spectrum. It didn’t take long for me to back out and walk away. I was appalled at what I read. All of it.

One of the things that stood out to me on my brief sojourn into the medium was the projections individuals make about those with whom they disagree. It’s not just the name calling, the demonizing, and what is ass-u-med about others that struck me (though that’s bad enough). It was also the simplistic projection of motives that amazed me. How easily we follow media into reducing complex issues and individuals into simple binaries in which we feel justified judging, hating, and dismissing.

One of the things that I’ve always loved about Jesus’ choice of The Twelve was the fact that He chose both a liberal Roman sympathizer (Matthew) and a militant ultra-conservative (Simon the Zealot). There’s a brilliant scene in The Chosen in which Jesus sends out The Twelve on assignment. The whole scene is brilliant and worth 15 minutes of your time, but around the 11:30 mark in the clip Jesus pairs Matthew and Simon together for the journey. It’s classic:

This all came to mind this morning as I read Job’s response to his friend, Eli’s, latest discourse. What struck me about Job’s commentary were the projections Job was casting on God. The most stark projection was that God was somehow in hiding from Job:

“But if I go to the east, he is not there;
if I go to the west, I do not find him.
When he is at work in the north, I do not see him;
when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him.”

This is such a stark contrast to the lyrics of David’s psalm 139:

Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.

All of the Great Story sides with David on this one. In his letter to Jesus’ followers in Colossae, Paul reveals Jesus as the force that holds all matter in the universe together (Col 1:17). In short, there is no where that one can hide from God. God is omnipresent. Asking for God to be present is sort of like asking oxygen to be present. The very request ignores an obvious reality.

ln view of this, it seems that Job’s suffering and his tragic circumstances have created in him a case of acute spiritual myopia. I can see the symptoms throughout the chapter. Not only does Job project that God is somehow in hiding, but he also projects that God has it out for him (vs. 14), that God wants to cause more bad things to happen to him (vs. 14).

Not that I blame Job for this. The Great Story also reveals that trials and sufferings are part of the process of spiritual formation and maturation. Job’s acute spiritual myopia is simply a symptom of this process. Struggle is a natural part of the growth process.

In the quiet this morning, I think back to this weekend with our peeps. Ten years ago our friends were struggling through pregnancies, babies, and young children. The establishing of careers and settling of homes. They are now struggling through the parenting of teenagers and preteens, mid-course career choices, and the impending realities of kids in college and aging parents. What I observed, however, was just how much each of our friends have grown, matured, and changed in that time. Each is more self-aware. Wisdom has been gained. Perseverance, patience, faith, and hope are present in each of them in greater measure. Perhaps most important, love is present in greater measure. I observe that we more intimately know both one another’s strengths and weaknesses. In this knowledge, we are able to serve one another out of our strengths, and shore up one another in their weaknesses.

I contrast this with Job and his three amigos. When it comes to my struggles in life, I’m glad we have great friends. Instead of pointing fingers, casting blame, and projecting assumptions, they reach out with gracious and generous helping hands.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Wayfarer

Monthly Archives: September 2023

Closing Argument