Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Just like Job...

"Job opened his mouth and cursed his day. Job spoke out and said, 'Perish the day on which I was born...'"
Job 3:1

As the mass readings reveal the Book of Job in the fall, I always think back to my freshman year of college, attending the nightly 10:00 mass in a small chapel in one of the dorms. The fact that I was attending mass each night should tell you a bit of how that first semester was for me! I was miserable and identified with Job myself. Sad, now that I think of it, that I was too young to really see how God was nudging me. But, I was so young and the fact that I turned to God in my misery was much more God reaching out than me.  Job is going through a terrible time and even rails against God, and you know what? That is wonderful.  God doesn't mind.  God can take it. It means that even in his sorry state, Job still believes in God enough to rail against God. You can't shake your fist and fight against Someone you don't believe in, can you? It's a sign of relationship to fight back. It's the sign of a two-way street there, and that is exactly what God wants from us...relationship.  We can question God, get angry with God, shake our fist at God and God can shoulder all of that.  And God recognizes that, even in our sorrow or anger, we believe. We acknowledge God and have a relationship with God.  And God joins us in our sorrows and cries with us. God rejoices with us in our good times, too. And God can be one with our anger and understands everything we feel.  So we are safe going to God with our full range of emotions. Just as Jesus did, we can go to God and ask, "If there is any way this cup could pass me by..." Love, heidi

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