All the Time

This is the message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Job 1:1-22.

It’s the month of Thanksgiving.  Giving thanks is an important thing for Christians.  The Bible tells us over and over that we are supposed to give God our thanks and praise.  Paul, in his letter to the Thessalonians, says we should be thankful in all circumstances. 

We know that, and we pay lip service to it.  But actually doing it is something else again.  Thankful in all circumstances?  Seriously?  Does God really expect us to be thankful in literally all circumstances?

What about those times when we don't really feel like we have much to be thankful for?  What about when our life stinks?  What about when it feels like life has punched us right in the nose, and then just when we're about to get up life kicks us in the stomach?  What about when we feel so beaten up by life that we feel like we can hardly catch our breath?  What about, well, times like now?  Are we supposed to be thankful?  For what?

In our reading from Job, Job had almost every bad thing happen that it's possible to have happen.  He loses all his possessions.  All his servants are killed.  Then, all his children are killed, too.  Later, in a part of Job we did not read, Job himself is afflicted with painful sores all over his body.

Now, Job stays faithful to God through all this.  He does not turn his back on God.  He says, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”  Later on, he asks the question, “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”  Obviously, Job thinks the answer is no.  We need to accept whatever God gives us, good or bad.

And you and I know that, too.  And sometimes, knowing that helps us.  But sometimes it does not.  It's like all the other platitudes we hear.  “Count your blessings.”  “Things could be worse.”  “Think of all the people who have it worse than you do.”  Those things may be true, and the people who say them may mean well, but when we feel like our lives are falling apart, those platitudes don't make us feel any better.  In fact, sometimes they make us feel worse because we know they are true.  We know we should feel thankful to God, no matter what our circumstances are.  But the fact is that, a lot of times, we don't feel thankful.  And because we know we should,, we start feeling guilty about not feeling thankful, and we pile that guilt on top of all the other stuff we feel.

You know what, though?  I think God understands how we feel.  I don't think God gets mad at us when life turns on us and nothing's going right and we don't feel very thankful.  We might be better off if we could feel thankful, but I think God understands that sometimes we just cannot do it.  No matter how much we may know we should feel thankful, we really cannot force ourselves to feel things we don't feel.  Sometimes, we cannot feel things until we're ready to feel them.  And we don't need to feel guilty if we're not ready to feel thankful at the moment.

And you know, that's in the story of Job, too.  Job may have said, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised”, but in a lot of the book of Job he is not praising the name of the Lord at all.  There are a lot of times in the book of Job where Job basically says, “God, what in the world are you doing?  This is not fair.  I don't deserve this.  And these friends of mine who keep giving me these platitudes about needing to trust you and to ask your forgiveness and all that are just making things worse.  If I'd done something wrong, I'd ask you for forgiveness, but I have not done anything wrong.  I've praised you.  I've honored you.  I've glorified you.  I've served you as well as I could all my life.  And this is the thanks I get?  What's the matter with you, God?  What are you doing here?”

All that does not sound like Job was feeling very thankful.  That does not sound like Job was just graciously accepting what had happened.  Job was upset.  Job was angry.  Job was demanding answers from God.

I'd guess that some of us have felt that way at some time in our lives, too.  We've felt like we've been mistreated by God, like God is not treating us fairly, like we've served God as well as we could and the thanks we get is to get shoved down into the mud.  Maybe you’re feeling that now.  If you've never felt that way, I'm glad, but you still might at some point in your life.  It's not that uncommon of a thing.

But there's one thing to notice about the story of Job.  Job may have been upset with God.  Job may have been angry with God.  But Job never gave up on God.  Job never decided that God was not there.  Job never decided that God did not care.  Job never lost faith in God.  No matter what happened to him, no matter how bad or mad or sad Job got, he never gave up on God.  He may have been arguing with God, he may have been demanding answers from God, but he never turned his back on God.

That's what we need to do.  When we cannot feel thankful to God, when we're upset with God, when we're angry with God, it's okay.  God understands it.  God won't be mad at us.  All God asks is that we not lose faith.  All God asks is that we not give up on God.  No matter what happens, all God asks is that we never turn our backs on God.

Job goes on being angry with God, being upset with God, demanding answers from God, for verse after verse, page after page, chapter after chapter.  These bad things happen to Job in the first two chapters of the book of Job.  Chapters three through thirty-seven are Job being upset with God and Job's friends giving him these platitudes about asking forgiveness.  Think about that.  Thirty-five chapters of Job ranting against God, demanding answers from God.  And then, finally, in chapter thirty-eight, God finally shows up.

And you know what?  God does not give Job any answers.  Instead, God reminds Job of just who God is.  God reminds Job that God is eternal.  God is all-powerful.  God is all-knowing.  God created everything there is.  And God is in control of it all.

God spends about four chapters telling Job this.  Some people read this as God being mad at Job, but I don't think so.  The people God gets mad at are Job's friends, the ones who sit there spouting these platitudes.  God explicitly tells them, “I am angry with you...because you have not spoken of me what is right.”  God tells them they need to apologize to Job for not being more understanding of Job.  God is angry with them, but God is not angry with Job.

I think God understands why Job felt the way he did.  I think the reason God goes on for those four chapters telling Job who God is, is so Job, and we, will get the point.  God knows more than we do.  God sees more than we do.  God knows the reasons for things that we cannot even being to understand the reasons for.  As Job ultimately realizes, “I spoke of things I did not understand, things to wonderful for me to know.”  

When you and I have those times in our lives when it seems like every bad thing in the world is happening to us, that's what God wants us to know.  God does not get mad at us for being angry with God.  God does not want us to feel guilty about it, and pile guilt on top of all our other problems.  God understands.

But God wants us to understand, too.  God wants us to understand that God is eternal.  That God is all-powerful, and all-knowing.  That God created it all, and God is in control of it all.  That God knows more than we do, sees more than we do, and knows the reasons for things we cannot even begin to understand.

At the end of the book of Job, because Job stayed faithful to God, God blesses the rest of Job's earthly life even more than he had the first part of Job's life, before all the bad things happened.  That may or may not happen to us in our earthly lives.  But we know that if we stay faithful to God, God will certainly bless our eternal lives.

We are better off if we can be thankful to God in all circumstances.  But if you're having trouble being thankful, it's okay.  In fact, if you're mad at God, it's okay.  God understands.  Just stay faithful to God.  Just remember who God is, and that God knows the reasons for things that we cannot even begin to understand.  Don't give up on God.  Because God will never give up on you.