THE "WORSHIP" OF JOB -- Devotional for April 25, from "Good Seeds"

Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. (Job 13:15).

My friend Bob is going through the greatest test of his life: His loving wife of 60+ years is languishing in a care facility going deeper and deeper into a dark hole of physical frailty and memory loss. He faithfully visits her every day, even though her words and actions are tearing him apart inside. It’s one thing to helplessly watch her slip into a passivity so contrary to the vivacious woman she has always been, quite another to receive such unfriendly stares, totally empty of any recognition. He’s asked her twice recently if she knows who he is. The first time she said, “Are you Daddy?’ The second time: “I guess you are who you are.” He told me today that he definitely won’t ask that question again – too painful! How awful to no longer be known – or loved – by the one who stood at his side as they faced life’s trials together. He’s still at her side, but now faces those things quite alone! He told me he recently heard a Bible teacher say that we worship at our best while experiencing pain at its worst. I thought that might have brought him encouragement and comfort. It didn’t. “Just the opposite,” he said. “It makes me feel bad. Oh I know the verses like, ‘All things work together for good to those who love God and are the called according to His purpose,’ (Romans 8:28), but I also know I’m doing anything but worshiping God in the midst of my pain. As a matter of fact, I’m just a bit put out with Him about it. Why doesn’t He just take her home? What possible purpose could He have in this useless lingering, this meaningless suffering, for both her and me?” I just quietly listened at my end of the line. What could I say? What do I know about such things? And then he said, “Don’t worry, Steve, I’m not losing my faith, but all I can think about, it seems, are my doubts and my pain.” My friend is a modern day Job, to be sure. We tend to connect Job with patience – “He has the patience of Job,” we say. But when I read those 42 chapters I don’t see patience – I sense worship. In my opinion Job was the greatest worshiper of all time. He questions God’s sanity in even allowing him to be born, but he never turns away from Him as his wife suggests he do. “Where would I go, when I know that after I go to my grave (even if my God were the one sending me there), I would pass right into His presence again” (Job 19:25). The closest thing to this was when the disciples answered Christ’s question, “Will you, too, go away?” with, “Where would we go, Lord? You have the words of life!” That's it. That’s Bob, right up there with Job and Peter and John: “I’m not going anywhere. I’m still right here, trusting You, Lord.”