“My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.”— Job 42:5 (NIV)
Seeing God at work when life hurts is a real challenge.
When bad things happen, I want to know why. Grief is overwhelming, and I wrongly assume answering the ‘why’ will take away the pain. There is comfort in what I understand. But what sense can I make of questions that are met only with silence? God could fix this, so why doesn’t He?
Lately, I’ve demanded God answer my choked ‘why’ more times than I want to admit. My son’s hip didn’t develop correctly, leading to surgery and a painful recovery. For 3 long months, my active toddler was stuck in a body cast. He was immobile and hurting. Metal plates and pins held his little hip together. I exhaled joy the day the cast came off, but was shocked by the emotional mess left behind. My son was angry and confused about his pain, and I was right there with him, feeling just as lost. I wanted an exit ramp so life could go back to normal.
My heart ached from life’s upheaval. God felt distant. God, where are you? What good can come of this?
Enter Job, his life a mess of hurt. Job lost nearly everything—his home, livelihood, children—all at once. Instead of comfort, friends hurled accusations and his wife urged him to curse God and die. Job wished he had never been born (Job 3:1).
Honesty like this is hard to swallow. How could Job say such a harsh thing and then demand answers from God Almighty (Job 31:35)? Yet when life hurts, don’t I do the same? Laser-focused problems look huge, while God feels small. Job’s struggle served to expand his view of God, proclaiming, “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you” (Job 42:5).
Reading Job’s ‘before God, after God’ response challenges my need for answers, shifting my perspective in the midst of suffering.
Before pain—hearing.
After pain—seeing.
God works both the good and the bad together, growing a faith that opens my eyes to see Him BETTER and BIGGER.
Friend, are you facing hard questions too? Perhaps you’re worried that if God doesn’t remove the mess, then He isn’t with you in it. When I think this way (and I do at times), I remember two truths from Job that help bring comfort:
1. God uses unchanged circumstances to change us.
I know this isn’t easy on our hearts, but pain really does have a purpose in God’s good hands. Suffering deepened Job’s eyes of faith, allowing him to see God powerfully on display like never before.
2. God is present in our pain.
We can be angry when God is silent, or we can trust He is working for us in ways that are unseen. Instead of sweeping away problems, God offers Himself and holds us tight when we grieve.
So, friend, although we may want one, we don’t need a tidy fix from God; we just need God.
