Lament and Life-storms

Read Job 16

How do you explain away pain, anguish and the wrenching of heart?

Life is not free of problems and troubles. There will be times when you feel all alone and totally abandoned. In times like these, it is okay to lament. It is okay ton lament that there is no one who understands; okay to acknowledge your feeling forsaken. Why? Because sometimes life just makes no sense at all.

In times like these, there is a sense of ambiguity and haziness as to what we should do, say and think.

Rather than keep it all bottled up, God gives us the permission to lament, to cry, to wail and to ask Him questions, to tell Him our doubts, to vent to Him our anger and to ‘pester’ Him for an answer. God is our Father, for that is what children do and behave toward their daddy when life overwhelms them.

There is space for lament and a time for crying and permission to go to our heavenly daddy.

So Job cries out “Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved; and if I refrain, it does not go away.” All that is left in Job is a huge blotch of pain that stabs and pierces his innermost being.

During moments of darkness, the more pertinent question is “who” you have with you and who is for us instead of “why it is happening”.

Job’s friends fail in rendering him comfort so he appeals to an advocate on high, to the witness in heaven. To Job, his friend is one who prays with him and for him during his time of trial.

We have such a friend. “Christ Jesus, who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” (Romans 8:34)

When you feel caught in a senseless situation where no explanation will satisfy, when your heart seems to be yanked out of you, turn to Jesus and He will be there. He promises ‘never to leave you nor forsake you.’