OUT IN THE COLD

OUT IN THE COLD

READ:  Job 11:7-20

To God belong wisdom 

and power; counsel and

understanding are his. 

Job 12:13

In desperation, a woman called the housing assistance center where I worked.  A heating problem had turned her rental home into a freezer with furniture.  Panicked, she asked me how she would care for her children.  I hurriedly replied with the scripted official response:  “Just move into a hotel and send the landlord the bill.”  She angrily hung up on me.

I knew the textbook answer to her question, but I had completely missed her heart.  She wanted someone to understand her fear and desperation.  She needed to know she wasn’t alone.  In essence, I had left her out in the cold.

After Job had lost everything, he had friends with answers but little understanding.  Sophar told him all he needed to do was live wholeheartedly for God. Then “life will be brighter than noonday,” he said (11:17).  That counsel wasn’t well received, and Job responded with scathing sarcasm:  “Wisdom will die with you!” (12:2).  He knew the dissatisfying taste of textbook answers to real-world problems.

It’s easy to be critical of Job’s friends for their failure to see the big picture.  But how often are we too quick with answers to questions we don’t truly understand?  People do want answers.  But more than that, they want to know we hear and understand.  They want to know we care.  TIM CUSTAFSON

Father, help us to be a friend before we offer advice to others.  Thank You for the privilege of sharing our hearts with You inprayer.  Thank You for sending us Your Holy Spirit so that we will never be alone.

Before people want to heart what you say, they want to know that you care.

INSIGHT

Many scholars consider the book of Job to be the oldest biblical book, though it does not contain the oldest stories about the creation of the universe and the fall of the human race (see Genesis).  It is fitting, therefore, that the oldest biblical book would deal with the most universally experienced human reality-the presence of suffering in the world.  BILL CROWDER