Day 101

I just found an old tweet that unintentionally 'recorded' my very first MS attack.

Of course, at that time, I didn't know what it was or that it would be a crucial moment that changed my (healthy) life in the following years. What a bittersweet finding.

The discovery led me to a quite intense conversation with God, involving some rated-R languages and stream of tears (PMS made it worse too). I asked so many fiery questions. Questions that most people are too scared to throw. Questions that most people prefer to refuse to take notice of, because they are too afraid of the answers. Questions that Job, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Nehemiah, and other figures in the Bible dared to utter, because they knew the One who holds all the answers would not judge or hate them for asking such questions. Questions that are honest, undisguised, and vulnerable. I don't think I got them all answered...yet.

Instead of discussing these rhetorical questions to fellow believers (who obviously won't have the answers either), I'd rather open and read the book of Job. I especially love the Message version because it has an introduction to this old book:

"Job suffered. He asked, "Why?" He asked, "Why me?" And he put his questions to God. He asked his questions persistently, passionately, and eloquently. He refused to take silence for an answer. He refused to take clichés for an answer. He refused to let God off the hook. 

Job did not take his sufferings quietly or piously. He disdained going for a second opinion to outside physicians or philosophers, Job took his stance before God, and there he protested his suffering, protested mightily. 

Job gives voice to his sufferings so well, so accurately and honestly, that anyone who has ever suffered—which includes every last one of us—can recognise his or her personal pain in the voice of Job. Job says boldly what some of us are too timid to say. He shouts out to God what a lot of us mutter behind our sleeves. 

Job's honest defiance continues to be the best defence against the clichés of positive thinkers and the prattle of religious small talk."
- Eugene H. Peterson (emphasis added)

If you're in the midst of an 'undeserved' suffering, or if your loved ones are and you're dying to know how to console and comfort them rightly (unlike Job's so-called best friends), I strongly encourage you to grab the Bible and read the book of Job.

Maybe then, people would stop throwing "a cheerful heart is a good medicine" or "everything happens for a reason" along with other empty overly-used pieces of advice so easily to our face, and start entering the mystery of suffering and looking around for God with us.