Polishing with Suffering and Lament

Readings:

Job 17

Job 18

Job 19

Job 20

In all of Job’s mourning, in his deep suffering — no one would actually listen to him and consider that his words could be true. Not one of them had even considered that God had removed the hedge of protection around Job, or that God might call Satan’s attention to Job to be purified by the refining fires of true, deep suffering.

Look at the examples of so many who walk with God who have faced levels of suffering that would leave those who do not know God saying, “He has sinned and God is punishing him” or similar. But have they not heard Jesus’s preaching from the mount that teaches about what real blessing looks like — do they not hear the call for us to share in the suffering of Christ — so they not know the example Christ and the Apostles and the martyrs have set before us?

Or are everyone’s eyes set upon chasing happiness and fulfillment and being honored in this life?

How often have I foolishly thought easy was best — rather than remembering that broad is the way that leads to real destruction.

I’m grateful for the book of Job and the Psalms of lament like Psalm 6, Psalm 38, Psalm 10, Psalm 42, Psalm 43, and Psalm 130 — and even in Jesus’s words of Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34 where He recites the words from Psalm 22: “My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?”

We should not be surprised that suffering and lament are tools the potter uses like sand and grit to polish a fine finish on his vessels.

Thank you Jesus.