October 6, 2024

Job 1:1-5, 2:1-10
Land of Uz

What if we do all the right things, earn all the merit badges, eat healthy, and exercise, only to discover our efforts are meaningless? This week we begin a month with the book of Job, following the story of a good man from Uz who loses everything. By chapter two, Job’s wife tells him, “Do you still persist in your integrity? Curse God and die.” He has forty more chapters of suffering to endure! 

In times of trouble, it is good to turn back to Job, a story that argues against tidy outcomes and justice. All the “merit badges” we have worked for are just threads. How do we continue to live with integrity in a world of grim injustice and suffering?

[Lectionary]