In the book of Job, after losing his children, health, and security, Job sits in unimaginable grief. His wife, equally devastated and exhausted by suffering, does something shocking. In chapter 2:9, she encourages Job to “Curse God and die.”
Her words could be read as bitter or maybe even as desperate. She really seems to think Job should give up on God and reject his faith.
I get that.
Absorbing hit after hit in fast succession makes cynicism feel reasonable. Piled up pain brings a temptation to consider faith to be naïve. And in that place, we can either curse God and die or cling to Him and live.
Job reprimands his wife asking, should we accept good from God and not trouble? Faith is an invitation to trust the heart of God through joy, grief, abundance, loss, long nights, and unanswered questions.
The past stretch of life has been hard in ways I don’t always know how to explain. I don’t know what comes next. The difficult stretch might end soon or more hard things could be ahead. But this much I know: God’s character does not change when my circumstances do. And despite the trouble that has come, I am stubbornly determined to cling to God and live.