Job sets example for pursuing truth

The Rev. Vicki Penner, chaplain, Presbyterian Manor, 1429 Kasold Drive:

Not at all. Not only is it OK to question God, it may be necessary for healing and growth.

We live in a world of suffering and loss. Death is a reality, and none of us get out of this life alive.

Looking at the story of Job in the Bible is very helpful to understanding how we can be in relationship to God even in the midst of loss.

Job was one of the most faithful lovers of God. Yet he was afflicted with the loss of his family, his wealth and his health. His friends, with all good intention, questioned whether his faith was enough. They wondered if there was some way in which Job sinned in order to justify all the ill fortune that had befallen him. Throughout the story, God maintains that Job is a righteous and faithful man.

Job and his friends question God. God’s response is not to answer them immediately. Rather, God’s response comes after much anger, denial, confusion and sadness. Some of it is expressed by Job and much of it is expressed by his well-meaning friends. In the end, God simply recounts the amazing aspects of the universe and asks Job to simply trust and hope. Accepting the new reality, Job goes on to experience an even greater reward for his faithfulness.

The work of psychologist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, who outlined a cycle of emotions around the experience of loss, continues to be helpful in the presence of suffering. She suggests that it is important for people to experience denial, anger, bargaining and depression before accepting the current situation. Some of this anger and bargaining is with God. It is not just OK to question God — it is important to question in order to get a full sense of what is happening and be able to make space in our hearts for trust and acceptance sometime in the future.

In the midst of suffering, trusting and hoping in God can be very difficult if we have not allowed ourselves the real anger, denial and sadness that often accompany the inevitable experiences of loss.

— Send e-mail to Vicki Penner at vickipenner@sunflower.com

Suffering puts faith to test

The Rev. Peter Luckey, senior pastor, Plymouth Congregational Church, 925 Vt.:

At a memorial service for a friend who died too soon, I said: “We did not want to be here today. Didn’t want this day to come. Still wishing, we are, that your lanky frame would come through that door, that twinkle in your eye, that spirit in your stride.

“Why, God, Why? There are no answers to our plea, at least none that satisfy. There is beauty and joy and love in this life, and there is heartache and tragedy and loss. And there is no telling why, no celestial ref who keeps it all fair.”

Truth is, from public ceremonies like this to the most lonely moments of our lives, we humans have cried out, “Why, God. Why?”

Finding no justification for the calamities that befell him, Job picked a bone with his creator. “Why didst thou bring me forth from the womb? Would that I had died before any eye had seen me” (Job 10:18).

When the prophet Jeremiah’s popularity tanked, he, too, complained to his boss, “Wilt thou be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail?” (Jeremiah 15:18).

For Christians, one of the most challenging texts in all the Bible is the one where Jesus cries out from the cross, “Why has thou forsaken me?”

Six million Jews were exterminated by the Nazis, nearly 3,000 were killed on Sept. 11, a parent loses a child, a freak accident claims a life, and we are cut to the bone by faith’s most vexing question: How can one believe in a good God in the face of such suffering?

In part, the clue to answering that question is found is pondering another: “Where was God?” God was in the midst of nightmare, collecting every tear, resonating with every fear stricken heart.

Our questioning God, more often than not, arises not out of nothing, but rather a conviction, a hope, an assumption that God exists to be railed against. God is what makes possible our protest possible.

We don’t know why God could not have arranged for my friend not to have to die his early death. What I do know down to my toes is that I am drawn to the very God who perplexes and maddens. God simply won’t let me go. By all means, question God.

— Send e-mail to Peter Luckey at peterluckey@sunflower.com.