The Logic of Eliphaz in the name of Jesus

Have you ever gotten help that was not helpful? Has someone ever given you some Bible verse to help you explain what was going on in your life. Like the Bible is a book of collected horoscopes. Do you have a friend who just is not listening to you and just wants to explain to you why you are wrong or that you just need to “look at the bright side”? If you do and your friend’s name is Eliphaz, then your name might be Job. 

Job is going through the most difficult time in his life and rather than just listen and be compassionate to Job, Eliphaz tries to tell Job that the real problem here is Job himself. According to Eliphaz, Job has made a mistake, has sinned and now he is living with the results of his sinful actions.

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:
‘If one ventures a word with you, will you be offended?
   But who can keep from speaking?
See, you have instructed many;
   you have strengthened the weak hands.
Your words have supported those who were stumbling,
   and you have made firm the feeble knees.
But now it has come to you, and you are impatient;
   it touches you, and you are dismayed.
Is not your fear of God your confidence,
   and the integrity of your ways your hope?
‘Think now, who that was innocent ever perished?
   Or where were the upright cut off?
As I have seen, those who plough iniquity
   and sow trouble reap the same.

Eliphaz is not too far off our current culture of blaming one another for our own lots. Frankly, it is just easier to blame the person for their lot than to entertain that maybe their lot in life is not the result of their own doing. We do not like the idea of randomness in the world. We like order and the security of cause and effect. 

But we all know that there are things that happen in this world that make your life worse that are of no fault of your own. The kid born into an abusive family did not choose that family. The person who is injured because of a drunk driver. The times we got sick even though we were very, very careful. Things happen. Rather than be the people who seek the false security of blaming the victim or be the people who have no compassion for those who feel like life is against them, we can be different. We can be a people who affirm that sometimes, things happen through the randomness of life and we will be there to weep/yell/mourn with you without any judgement. 

While the world may not have many people named Eliphaz, I am sure we have encountered Eliphaz by a different name. I pray that no one has ever used the logic of Eliphaz while using the name Jesus.

The Road to Hope

Civil Rights leaders knew the power of suffering Photo by History in HD on Unsplash

I spend much of my days shoring up that I do not suffer. I take aspirin. I work hard to ensure my kids are quite and not yelling. I turn the news off that I don’t want to see. I time my driving so to avoid traffic. I delay sharing bad or unwelcome news with others. I order things online so I do not have to go to the store. I look for the shortest lines.

Recently this line came through WeCroak: “Our avoidance instinct is also due to the fact that our culture has decided that suffering has no value.” (original source)

As a human I work to avoid suffering but as a Christian I know that suffering has immense value. As Paul writes:

And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.- Romans 5:3-5 (NRSV)

Paul seems to suggest that suffering is the road to hope. It is a road less traveled in my life.

I live in a bubble wrapped existence where the extent of my suffering is a power outage for a few hours or failing to meet some arbitrary expectation. I can imagine that many of us in the Church in the United States also do not suffer much at all. Which of course begs the question - if we suffer little do we hope for less?

Everything happens. Sometimes there is a reason.

You have heard it, "Things happen for a reason." 

For many this mantra is hopeful because it gives a sense of security that no matter what crap they are living with right now, there is meaning behind it. That suffering is not without purpose. This can reassure us when we feel like we are alone and broken and hopeless. If we can only believe that things happen for a reason then it dulls the pain a bit and gives us breath for another day. I do not discount the comfort this provides people in time of need.  

But it does not provide comfort for me at all. 

It can be argued that if things happen for a reason than ultimately that reason is God. It is God that caused the tsunami. It is God that gave the cancer. It is God that was behind genocides and wars. When I hear "everything happens for a reason" my mind jumps to the question, "why would God not only allow but even cause this amount of suffering?" 

I do not believe that everything happens for a reason. I do not believe that God causes, green lights or approves of the suffering in the world. 

Rather than causing the suffering, I believe God is present with us through the suffering like a friend. Rather than trying to teach a lesson of how strong God has made you ("God will not give you more than you can handle") or get you to be more faithful ("God brought you to it and God will bring you through it."), I believe God weeps and struggles with us. 

As Rev. William Sloane Coffin said at his son's funeral ten days after he died in a car accident, God provides minimum protection and maximum support.

Here is what I know. Everything happens. Sometimes there is a reason, sometimes there is not a reason. Either way, God is present with you. 

And that brings me more comfort than thinking that everything happens for a reason.