Job 1-4 The intellectual answer and the felt answer

June 1st, Job 1-4

       The right words to say in any given moment are difficult to come by. Each situation has a life of it's own and words that express our pain or console others can be tricky at best. What gets said one moment might not be the sentiment later.
       Job has two responses to this great tragedy of his. The first one is the good response we all know we should say, "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." It's the right answer. It's what we ought to say. But somewhere in the depth of mourning there comes over us a response that is a little more like chapter 3:3-10 

“May the day of my birth perish,
    and the night that said, ‘A boy is conceived!’
4 That day—may it turn to darkness;
    may God above not care about it;
    may no light shine on it.
5 May gloom and utter darkness claim it once more;
    may a cloud settle over it;
    may blackness overwhelm it.
6 That night—may thick darkness seize it;
    may it not be included among the days of the year
    nor be entered in any of the months.
7 May that night be barren;
    may no shout of joy be heard in it.
8 May those who curse days[a] curse that day,
    those who are ready to rouse Leviathan.
9 May its morning stars become dark;
    may it wait for daylight in vain
    and not see the first rays of dawn,
10 for it did not shut the doors of the womb on me
    to hide trouble from my eyes.

       Job seems to feel a bit different from a chapter before. Sometimes the right answer and the answer we feel are two different answers. It's from this moment of confession about how all of this feels that Job's friends go on a mission of blame. The friends were doing better when they were following their custom of "Sitting Shiva" in chapter 2:13. 

       Sitting Shiva(careful saying it fast, multiple times) is the tradition of being with the one who mourns in silence. The one who breaks the silence is the one mourning. Your job is to simply be with your friend. Your not supposed to say anything. Good advice.

       Two things, be with people when they mourn. Don't feel like you have to say something, don't make this about you and your discomfort!! Second, times of mourning bring both of Job's statements to the front of our thought life. Wrestling with the reality of a broken world. We know the answer we should say and we know the answer we feel. It's okay to be honest.