Suffering and Joy

Job 2:9 Then his wife said to him, “Are you still holding firmly to your integrity?Curse God, and die!” 2:10 But he replied, “You’re talking like one of the godless women would do! Should we receive what is good from God, and not also receive what is evil?” In all this Job did not sin by what he said.

Question to all: How many times in life have we felt that God have failed us in one way or another.

You felt sick and down, out of luck, jobless, did not reach your expectations in an examination.

Many times, people will ask, why is there suffering in the world?
Just look around us, floods in Indonesia and Malyasia have taken away many innocent lives and made many homeless and unemployed. Last year, typhoon rampaged across America, making millions homeless. Earlier back, there was the tsunami. Sars, bird flu, poverty in Africa, Aids, cancer......

The numerous examples cited is enough to make people wonder: its God the Lord almighty, why is he unwilling to help those suffering in the world?

This morning, I was pondering through the question and decided to spend some extra time in the train reading the bible. I came around this verse in the passage.

Job 2:10 But he replied, “You’re talking like one of the godless women would do! Should we receive what is good from God, and not also receive what is evil?” In all this Job did not sin by what he said.

Many times in our lives, we only seek the lord when we are down and out. When we want to recive and take things from the lord. We treat God as a vending machine, just inserting money and he will answer to our every wishes. However, God is God. As freely as he gives he takes. When I was reading through Job, I realised that we will never be able to comprehend sufferings as Job is unable to comprehend his own sufferings. We should receive what is good from the lord and what is evil. As what may seem evil to us actually serves an unknown but greater purpose for the lord. In Job's case, it was a test from Satan. To us, it may be a test from God to mould us or a test of our faith to differentiate those he favours from the others. We may never know, but as we freely receive what is good from the lord, we should freely receive the evil from him too.

As some of you may know, during my days in the army, I suffered from anaemia and stomach problems. Till date, there have not been a conclusive reason behind these illnesses. But because of this, I was unable to serve my NS normally. I went in and out of CGH, had blood transfusions, had many follow ups. At a point, I had to go for mental check up as the doctor thought I had anxiety problems earlier on before realising the root was anaemia.

Prior to this, I fractured my finger during the 1st BMT when I had 2 weeks to go, so I had to be taken out of course and was not able to go on to be a commander. During my 2nd BMT, I caught chicken pox and had to be out of coursed as well.

I wondered too. Was the lord forsaking me? During my times of suffering, why didn't he hear my prayers? I lamented about it. I was dejected. I did not even want to go to church at that point.

Then the lord came to me. He told me that the suffering that I was going through was a test, a test of my faith. It was meant for me, I cannot continue in my old ways. I cannot walk away from him any longer. God wants to mould me, use me for greater purposes in his life, beyond what I can imagine. It was of his will that he chose to break me in NS.

And I will praise him for doing so just as Job praised him when he lost all his worldly possessions.

To implore all those who are suffering now, do not blame the lord or reject him. Have faith that he will deliver you out of the suffering just as he blessed Job with more in his later half of his life as he was able to show unwavering faith in the lord.

Go deep with him, look far and dream big.