its famous. for a reason.

for a while i just promised myself that instead of going to church id read a passage a week as that was always my favorite part of church: the reading of the Gospel.

i started at the beginning of Genesis and was on a quest to read the good book all the way through to the end. something i had done my senior year of college.

but when i realized i wasnt making much progress, and i was forgetting what i was reading, i upped it to reading for an hour each Sunday.

this week i started Job. its a lot easier to read than i remembered. maybe because its sorta a poem. you can blaze through a chapter in Job in about 3-4 minutes. as most people know it’s a story about a very successful man who really loves God and is super obedient and then one day Satan (or The Accuser) says “well duh God, of course Job is really sweet and prays to you all the time, look at him he’s rich, has a lot of animals and servants, and has this huge wonderful family, take all that stuff away from him and i bet you he renounces you and hates your freakin guts.”

so for some reason God allows Satan to kill his kids, demolish his animals, and put boils all over Job’s flesh. then they both see how Job reacts.

in an hour, because i have ADD, i only made it through the first 14 chapters. so far Job went from it’s ok, it’s ok because “the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away” to omg kill me already this blows.

his friends have shown up to listen to his moans and groans. they give him advice but when all your animals have died, your kids have died, and you cant even sit straight because of your boils, you dont wanna hear any damn advice from your stupid friends.

it made me realize all the stupid advice i have given my friends was probably equally annoying.

so any friend who i have tried to counsel lately, and strangely i have quite a few who probably could relate to Job right now, sadly, i am very sorry. i dont remember exactly how Job ends, but probably the best thing a friend can do is say i love you im here for you and together we’re going to figure out how best to ease your pain.

amen