Job

This post nicely follows the last one I did. It's about my first challenge (the challenge to read my bible, and read it everyday). So I am reading through a study that takes you through the bible chronologically. I started with the beginning of Genesis, and then, to my surprise, I was taken to Job- withour finishing Genesis, huh!? Pretty cool. Apparently it comes sooner than it was placed in the bible. But along with being wowed, I was also disappointed, because I finished reading Job at the beginning of Decemeber. I had never read it, adn really wanted to for a while, so I finally read the book in November. Then all of a sudden I have to read it again? Oh well, there must be a reason :)
And I guess I have started to look at the book differently, in reading it through a second time. My dad actually told me today that I should read important things through twice, to get the real meaning.

While reading through the book, there was a passage that stood out to me. In chapter 7, verses 6-21, Job cries out to God saying:


Job 7:6-21
Job Cries Out to God

 ⁶ “My days fly faster than a weaver’s shuttle.
      They end without hope.
 ⁷ O God, remember that my life is but a breath,
      and I will never again feel happiness.
 ⁸ You see me now, but not for long.
      You will look for me, but I will be gone.
 ⁹ Just as a cloud dissipates and vanishes,
      those who die^[a] will not come back.
 ¹⁰ They are gone forever from their home—
      never to be seen again. ¹¹ “I cannot keep from speaking.
      I must express my anguish.
      My bitter soul must complain.
 ¹² Am I a sea monster or a dragon
      that you must place me under guard?
 ¹³ I think, ‘My bed will comfort me,
      and sleep will ease my misery,’
 ¹⁴ but then you shatter me with dreams
      and terrify me with visions.
 ¹⁵ I would rather be strangled—
      rather die than suffer like this.
 ¹⁶ I hate my life and don’t want to go on living.
      Oh, leave me alone for my few remaining days.
 ¹⁷ “What are people, that you should make so much of us,
      that you should think of us so often?
 ¹⁸ For you examine us every morning
      and test us every moment.
 ¹⁹ Why won’t you leave me alone,
      at least long enough for me to swallow!
 ²⁰ If I have sinned, what have I done to you,
      O watcher of all humanity?
   Why make me your target?
      Am I a burden to you?
 ²¹ Why not just forgive my sin
      and take away my guilt?
   For soon I will lie down in the dust and die.
      When you look for me, I will be gone.”

Job is an inspiration and a role model to me because he reminds me that life is not always easy- and even when it is hard, we often fool ourselves in front of our friends, or pretend that everything is alright. Job is so honest, and his plea to God is almost... refreshing? It says it all in the title: Job CRIES OUT to God. Job is NOT doing okay and he pleads and cries and gives himself to God, completely!  
     And then there's the fact that so many of the things that Job says in the passage accurately describe moments in my life, in the past and even now. Job is not kidding, he is the 'real deal'. Maybe I feel like I can really relate to Job, and it makes me happy and at peace, knowing that it is in the Bible, God's Holy word. The word that God INSPIRED! 


I am excited about this. I was reading Job again this morning, envision in a production (play) in my head. But I don't think that will go over well.
Instead I'll turn to God and praise him, that even in the hard times, when we want to despair, God is there.


Christi