Where Is God When It Hurts

WHERE IS GOD WHEN IT HURTS?

Job 3:1-7, 11-13, 16-17, 20-26

Proposition: God is present & working on our behalf sooner or later behind the scenes when we suffer hurt due to the trials and adversities we experience in living out our spiritual life.

Objective: My purpose is to help people to know that God is present & wants to help so that we face life with courage on any terrible, horrible, no good & very bad days as we live our lives.

INTRODUCTION:

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

“I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there’s gum in my hair and when I got out of bed this morning I tripped on the skateboard and by mistake I dropped my sweater in the sink while the water was running and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. At breakfast Anthony found a Corvette Sting Ray car kit in his breakfast cereal box and Nick found a Junior Undercover Agent code ring in his breakfast cereal box but in my breakfast cereal box all I found was breakfast cereal. I think I’ll move to Australia.

In the car pool Mrs. Gibson let Becky have a seat by the window. Audrey and Elliott got seats by the window too. I said I was being scrunched. I said I was being smushed. I said, “If I don’t get a seat by the window I am going to be carsick.” No one even answered. I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. At school Mrs. Dickens liked Paul’s picture of the sailboat better than my picture of the invisible castle. At singing time she said I sang too loud. At counting time she said I left out sixteen. Who needs sixteen? I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. I could tell because Paul said I wasn’t his best friend anymore. He said that Philip Parker was his best fried and that Albert Moyo was his next best friend and that I was only his third best friend.

“I hope you sit on a tack,” I said to Paul. “I hope the next time you get a double-decker strawberry ice-cream cone the ice cream part falls off the cone part and lands in Australia.” There were two cupcakes in Philip Parker’s lunch bag and Albert got a Hershey bar with almonds and Paul’s mother gave him a piece of jelly roll that had coconut sprinkles on the top. Guess whose mother forgot to put in dessert? It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. That’s what it was, because after school my mom took us all to the dentist and Dr. Fields found a cavity just in me. “Come back next week and I’ll fix it,” said Dr. Fields. “Next week, I said, I’m going to Australia.”

On the way downstairs the elevator door closed on my foot and while we were waiting for my mom to get the car Anthony made me fall where it was muddy and then when I started crying because of the mud Nick said I was a crybaby and while I was punching Nick for saying crybaby my mom came back with the car and scolded me for being muddy and fighting. “I am having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day,” I told everybody. No one even answered. SO then we went to the shoe store to buy some sneakers. Anthony chose white ones with blue stripes. Nick chose red ones with white stripes. I chose blue ones with red stripes but then the shoe man said, “We’re all sold out.” They made me buy plain old white ones, but they can’t make me wear them. There were lima beans for dinner and I hate limas. There was kissing on TV and I hate kissing. My bath was too hot, I got soap in my eyes, my marble went down the drain, and I had to wear my railroad-train pajamas. I hate my railroad-train pajamas. When I went to bed Nick took back the pillow he said i could keep and the Mickey Mouse night light burned out and I bit my tongue. The cat wants to sleep with Anthony, not with me. It has been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. My mom says some days are like that. Even in Australia.

Job was a good man but he is also a suffering man. He has spent time on the ash heap in his pain and agony. Then his friends come to comfort him, but sit in silence for over a week. Then Job and begins to speak. Out of the depth of his suffering, Job cries out in anguish. Cursing his birth, he attests that life has lost its meaning and God has forsaken him. With words that borders on blasphemy, Job spits out his bitterness, shouts his doubts and sobs his wish for death. Who knows what went through Job’s mind during the days of his suffering on the ash heap? Then the arrival of his friends who represents “the religious wisdom and spiritual maturity” of his day brings him new hope. Surely they will answer Job’s doubt and feel his despair. He is surprised when they may have gotten up and walked away and Job may have realized that they came not to help him but to bury him. This is when all the doubt and despair that they has been building up in Job explode in a torrent of anguish and anger.