I recently shared with one of my classes that I lived between the tension of John 10:10 and Job 14:1. I confessed Christ as Lord just before I turned fifteen years old. I eagerly read through Scripture and quickly discovered passages that shaped my life. Jesus said,
I came so that they would have life, and have it abundantly (John 10:10).
As a young man, these words encouraged me to live life full of hope, joy, and anticipation. I was convinced that as long as I followed after Jesus, my life would be full.
As I grew older in the Faith, and biologically, I struggled with a crisis of faith. I never gave up on Jesus, but I found life to be filled with trouble. As a pastor, I walked with many people who suffered with “the worries of the world” (Mark 4:19). These people were faithful to Christ, but their marriages fell apart, some tragically lost a child, others went bankrupt.
The longer we live, the more we lose. We lose loved ones and friends to disease and death. Our children and grandchildren struggle. When our kids struggle, we struggle. This brings me to the words of Job:
“How frail is humanity! How short is life, how full of trouble!” (Job 14:1 NLT).
The longer we live, the more people we love, the more burdens we share, the more suffering we endure. When our family, friends, and neighbors suffer, we grieve with them. When they die we lament. We become accustomed to struggling through the stages of grief. We become traumatized by the injustices of this present age, by the sorrow provoked by our own mortality. Sometimes our sorrow is beyond healing (Jeremiah 8:18). When humans suffer, God grieves. Through the Holy Spirit we share in that divine lament and God shares our sorrow (Romans 8:26).
The words of Job do not cancel the words of Jesus. Jesus, God-with-us, came to us precisely because life is full of trouble. In Christ, God embraced human suffering. Jesus is a person of sorrows and acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3). In this present age, we suffer and in our suffering we hope. We sing at funerals. Jesus makes it possible for us to experience abundant life even as we struggle with life. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who walks with us as we journey through the valley of the shadow of death (John 10:11; Psalm 23:4). When we face our mortality, we are reminded that Jesus offers eternal life – “there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain” (Revelation 21:4).
