Warm hearts and cold days

Photo by bummy2810 via Flikr

“It’s so cold that the snowman knocked on the front door and asked to sleep on the couch”

Now, that’s funny.

Cold hearts. Frozen bank accounts. Chilled relationships.

Now, that’s serious.

“Out of the south comes the storm, And out of the north the cold.
From the breath of God ice is made, And the expanse of the waters is frozen.
-Job 37:9-10 (NASB)

Now, that’s harsh reality.

“Curious,” said my pastor friend Jim Walters, “that this cold verse comes from a biblical book on suffering.”

“So why do bad things happen to good people,” he asks. And he’s not alone. If you’ve ever been betrayed by a spouse or a friend. If you’ve ever had a child turn his back. If you’ve ever been flat on your back, sick with the world’s afflications. If you’ve ever been destitute and alone…you’ve asked this question.

Jim’s blunt answer — and the same one from the Bible —  is that “the godly will suffer.” And it isn’t just the saints. It’s everyone. We live in a broken world, complete with broken dreams, broken promises and broken hearts. It’s part of being human.

Jim talks about Job’s encounters with his friends and then with God. “God weighs in and asks Job about a hundred hard questions, of which Job is able to answer exactly zero.”

When life is stacked against you, you just don’t have an answer. None.

According to Jim, the best verse in the whole book is from Job 1:21, “The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

“Say that last sentence a few times over, and you’ll find a strange warming within your own heart,” he said.

It was 18 below yesterday. But I’m starting to fill a warm spell coming on.

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