Feb 8, 2015: Job 7:1-7

We encourage you to read this devotion three times a day.  Start in the morning and reflect upon the morning reflection question. Then in the afternoon, read it again and reflect using the noon question for reflection.  For the evening, take time to ponder how this has resonated with you in the day and reflecting using the evening question.  We offer a prayer with each devotion for you to pray or we invite you to pray what is in your heart.  

Job 7:1-7

7‘Do not human beings have a hard service on earth,
   and are not their days like the days of a labourer?
² Like a slave who longs for the shadow,
   and like labourers who look for their wages,
³ so I am allotted months of emptiness,
   and nights of misery are apportioned to me.
⁴ When I lie down I say, “When shall I rise?”
   But the night is long,
   and I am full of tossing until dawn.
⁵ My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt;
   my skin hardens, then breaks out again.
⁶ My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,
   and come to their end without hope.
⁷ ‘Remember that my life is a breath;
   my eye will never again see good.

Reflection:

There is no denying that many horrible things happened to Job. I have never known suffering like Job experienced and I hope to never know it. I have felt like Job felt in this passage today and I am sure that you have as well. Job reflects that feeling of suffering that I have experienced. I remember the low points in my life. I was in 2^nd grade and my first girlfriend broke up with me to go out with my best friend. It was horrible, to my eight year old mind I was crushed and like Job I thought I would never be happy again. I remember being similarly sad after college. Heather and I were newly married, just out of school, and struggling to find jobs. I was sure we would never find good jobs and that we would be poor forever. It was stressful, it was hard and I couldn’t see happiness in our future. I can also remember being a new parent and the first time Abbie cried all night. I was convinced that I would never sleep again, that the pain would never stop, and that I was going to be a horrible dad. The good news is how I felt in those moments did not last. Job was happy again, if you flip to the end of the story then you realize how he felt in Job 7 did not last. We are all going to go through things, we are all going to have moments of pain, suffering and disappointment. The good news is they are only moments and realizing the truth from our past disappointments and events can help us find perspective on our current disappointments. I have never suffered like Job, but I know that Job was happy again at the end of the story. I know that we are not defined, controlled or destine to live in our worse moments forever.

Reflection Questions: Think about some of your disappointments, heartaches, or difficult times from your childhood or an earlier stage in life. How did you feel about the event when it was happening? How do you feel about it now, with the benefit of time? Do you think you will feel the same way about some of your current difficulties in ten, fifteen or twenty years? Does it give you a different perspective on your current problems?

Midday Check In: Have you encountered any difficulties today? Does the lesson from Job help shape your perspective on these problems?

 Evening reflection: What is the hardest thing you are struggling with or your biggest disappointment right now? How do you think you will feel about this situation five years from now?