Sunday Musings attempts to apply spiritual understanding to the everyday world.
“The patience of Job”
As the Bible is read less and less, Job’s life becomes more of a fantastical account than a story of virtue and strength.
As CatholicLink explains in a nutshell, “He lost his possessions, his servants, and his whole family… and he even suffered a wound that stretched from his head to his feet.” Is it any wonder that Job was inconsolable?
If in bed I say, "When shall I arise?"
then the night drags on;
I am filled with restlessness until the dawn.
My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle;
they come to an end without hope.
Remember that my life is like the wind;
I shall not see happiness again.
Job has a right to sound whiny, considering all that he’s been through. That’s not the point of the Book of Job, though. What’s key is that no matter what happened to him, he never got mad at God.
“The story ends with God restoring Job to life, seeing that after suffering and accepting it, Job never denies nor curses Him," CatholicLink explains. “Job goes on to form a new family….He prospers economically more than before, and his fame as a blessed man extends everywhere.”
How often do some of us incur a minor setback and complain about how unlucky we are? Instead of recognizing the incident as a way to grow, we fall into a rut so deep that every occurrence afterward is seen as yet another setback and an example of our miserable existence. Our lives aren’t half as bad as Job’s, yet we act like we’re ruined. Our faith in God is shattered, as if God has decided to send us a lifetime of heartache.
This negative attitude tends to be on the mild side: complaining, wallowing in self-pity, maybe a bit of depression. It’s when it gets extreme that we see the opposite of “the Job Tactic; giving up becomes the answer.
Job said he would never be happy again, and that sounds awfully fatalistic; however, he didn’t give up, no matter how bad things got (and they got pretty bad). His reward, after all the hardship, was an abundance of happiness and prosperity. As Christians, we understand that wonderful conclusion may not happen until the next life, but we believe it will happen.
When we give up, we take everything out of a Creator’s hands and into our own. We know how much we can take; only we understand the level of sickness, loss, poverty, abandonment that we should be allowed to bear. Once we’ve hit that self-determined level, we make a decision how to move forward, or to not move forward at all.
Imagine if assisted suicide had been a thing when Job was alive. If he had been given the opportunity to get into one of those fancy pods that fills with gas and puts you to sleep forever, would he have done so? Would that ultimate conclusion to his life have brought a sense of peace for those who knew him? Or would it have caused even more people to fall into despair about the cruelty of life?
In the secular world, “the patience of Job” signifies someone who can put up with a lot of inconveniences and not get his feathers ruffled. From a spiritual perspective, it’s more about growing from those inconveniences, even tragedies, and finding the strength to go on. “The Job Tactic” can be easier said than done, but it might be something we should all try on some level if we want to appreciate life’s journey.
Excellent article! That’s the mentality we should all strive for. It’s difficult, but it’s hopeful. In all my life I never blamed God for my health condition. Never. Which is interesting that as a child or a teenager, I did not blame Him.
Stick to hope and optimism. Check out the movie The Shift.