Good Day, Better Day…Horrible Day?
He was not from the merry old land of Oz; he was from the land of Uz. He probably could have used the help of Dr. Oz. His name was Job. He was afflicted with sores from head to toe. Before this affliction, he learned that a wind blew down the home of his eldest son, killing family members.
As one of my former professors said, “There are good days and better days; this is just a good day.” If I were in the shoes of Job, I doubt, seriously, that I would even call this a good day. He was aching physically, and he was aching mentally. He was living through a miserable time in his life.
Many people have miserable times in their lives. I’ve had them. Chances are you have had them. We are all prone to some days not being as good as we would like them to be for one reason or another. As I write this column, it is mid-November and the upper mid-west has been slammed by tornadoes.
A lot of people are miserable as I write. Lives have been taken from them. Lives have been drastically altered in a matter of seconds. Some are now without a home. Some are now without a loved one. It’s not a good day or a better day. It’s a horrible day any way you look at it.
Throughout my life I’ve watched people die horrible deaths. Life as a hospital chaplain sensitizes you to the horrors of death and what some people go through before they leave this life and enter into eternity. Some say that there are some things worse than death. I believe this is true.
Being a pastor of a local church sensitizes you to the tragic events that families and individuals go through in life, as well. The death of a child comes to mind, or the death of a parent of small children. Both are heart-breaking events and experiences.
For some people the loss may be that of a home. A lot of folks have lost what they call home since 2008. During that time, a lot of folks lost what they called jobs, as well. I know we refer to it as a great recession. I don’t think referring to it as another Great Depression is wrong either. A lot of people in our community, county, state, and nation have suffered greatly over the last five years.
There are times when I enter into prayer and have not the words, or the energy to sum up something meaningful. So, I remember what the Bible says. “The spirit helps us in our weaknesses for we do not know what we ought to to pray as we ought but the spirit intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.”
Find a quiet place and focus on the events at hand. If you do not have the words, the spirit will intervene for you and give you the words and the strength to survive whatever it is.