Spirit Ache

There's not a whole lot of usage of the book of Job these days, other than veiled attempts to explain teen acne.  Ya know, Job's 3 buddies come visit him after his calamity, and they all essentially say, "what did you do to deserve this?"  The disciples ask Jesus the same thing in John 9 when they encounter a blind guy on the side of the road (as if the blind guy couldn't hear them...cuz I assume he had really cool Bible-era super hearing to compensate for his blindness!).  What do we suppose Jesus said when He slapped his own forehead?  "OMG!" would be redundant, so maybe He just said, "Oi."  It's not always bad choices that cause our problems.  Sometimes, life is just hard because this world is jacked up!

And that's really the point of Job, as I see it recently.  Job may be the oldest piece of human literature in existence.  I mean, it was ancient when Paul was making friends on a deserted island in the middle of the Med (Acts 27).  Yet, here's Job, a guy who, at least 4,000 years ago yearned for something else...something more.  Listen to him in Job 19:27 I myself will see Him with my own eyes - I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!

Job's luxury is that he at least understood why.  Most of us don't; we're just restless.  Of course, Augustine says that we will be because God made us for Himself and we will be like that until we find ourselves in Him.  As the song says, there's a God-shaped hole in all of us.  And it aches.  It aches in a way that we can't understand because it's a spirit ache.  No aspirin for that.  I think my favorite song writer and lyricist ever is Andrew Peterson.  If you don't already own & listen to everything he has ever produced, well you're just a terrible person.  Listen to how he describes the yearn:

These many days of waiting will only be a sentence in the story.

This long day will come to an end, and I believe it will end in glory, when we will shine like suns and stride the green hills with those we love and the One who loves.

We will look with our new eyes and speak with our new tongues and turn to each other and say, "Do you remember the waiting?  The long years, the bitter pain, the gnawing doubt, the relentless ache?"

And like Mary at the tomb we will say: "I remember only the light, and the voice calling my name, and the overwhelming joy that the waiting was finally over."

The stone will be rolled away for each of us.

May we wait with faithful hearts.

     -Andrew Peterson

He's coming, but for now it hurts.  But it's a good hurt.  Romans 8:22-23 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.  Oooouuuuuwwwww...

TLDR

I sent someone a message not too long ago, and back came their response:  "TLDR."  My first assumption that they wanted me to "take long dirt road" didn't work out too well.  I got creative and started thinking about all the things it could mean.  "toes like dead raccoon," "teeth lost during reconnaissance," and "two leprechauns dis Roseanne" didn't seem to effectively capture the sentiment either.

So I broke down & hit Wikpedia.  I figure, if it's on the internet, it MUST be true...  It is here that I discovered that "TLDR" actually is a universally-accepted text abbreviation for "Too Long Didn't Read."  If you've gotten this far in this post, you didn't know that either because if you DID know, you wouldn't still be reading, because, like me, you have the attention span of a gnat on Red Bull & Skittles.

So here's where I had what I call a very minor epiphany.  For most of us, any printed material results in the knee-jerk reaction of, "too long didn't read."  We just want someone to tell us what it means...so that we don't have to actually invest any of our own time & energy & thought capital on anything.  "Yeah yeah yeah, just tell me quickly cuz I have more important things to do...like watching episode 19 of 'Deadliest Catch' (& someone might catch a crab this time!)"

And so Scripture doesn't get read, and no one knows who God is or what He wants, and we rely on other people to tell us what they think God means.  Yikes!  It has been said that men would rather die than think.  I think that similarly, most of us would rather just not know than have to seek out the truth.  Ignorance is bliss?  Um, ignorance is... ignorance!

Have you gotten this far?  How 'bout His story.  I'm pretty sure that when we stand before Him He will not accept TLDR when we're asked if we read His book.  Or are the answers we want in the ready-to-order stars, internet, or new age gibberish?  1 Timothy 4:7 But reject those myths fit only for the godless and gullible, and train yourself for godliness.

Read.  It's disciplined training.  It's worth it!