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...