Day 66 & 67:: Talking & Comforting

Day 66: (forgot to blog) -- "Oh dear friends, take pity on me! God has come down hard on me! Do you have to be hard on me, too? Don't you ever tire of abusing me?"

This was really neat to read in the Message translation and to hear Job's pleas with his friends to let God be his convictor, judge, and ruler...and for them to be his...friends. The thing is, God (by His very holy nature) is in charge of conviction and ruling the circumstances of our lives. Too many times we as humans try to be God in the lives of those around us...we try to create conviction in their hearts, we try to preach the "truth," when all we are really doing is compounding the situation and leaving our "friends" hurting even more, battered and torn.

I also find it AWESOME that Job just happened to say "If only my words were written in a book..." I am SO GLAD they were.

Day 67: I do NOT know what to say to grieving, suffering people. I don't have enough words, wisdom, or knowledge. I'm not really sure who really does. So, when we're sitting across the table or on the couch with the person who is out-of-their-mind in grief or suffering, we have this choice...to fill the air with words (that usually, by the way, come out condescending, cliche, heartless, or empty) or to sit quietly (yes, maybe awkwardly) and just be with the person...continue to love the person...cry with the person...feel the pain of the person in your own heart. Usually, I think, to avoid discomfort of our own (ironically) or awkward pauses, we fill the silence with some "wisdom" we can drum up or something we've heard off of a movie. I think, if we were more concerned with how God wants to use us in that situation and focusing on the person and THEIR pain, God would be able to show us the doors into their heart...their hearts of emotional, mental, spiritual, or physical pain...and He will give us the GIFT of empathy to enter their world, and He will give us the words (if any) to say and the actions (if any) to take, and He WILL use us...if we are trusting Him...and ready...and willing to be focused on someone other than ourselves.