When Suffering Shifts Your Focus

By Dean Collins

Every year for at least 30 years I have read the book of Job. Some years I cringed when Job popped up in my reading plan because I just didn’t want to hear about more suffering. This year I was able to read Job with more curiosity. We probably don’t think about this enough, but our mood and life circumstances alter the way we receive and interpret scripture. This is one reason why it is a healthy exercise to read scripture in community. Over the years, I have turned to trusted friends who also read scripture daily to check myself, especially when I am going through both tough times as well as when things are going well. 

Unfortunately for Job, his friends offered little help and mostly focused on trying to figure out what secret sin Job hadn’t confessed. Job’s friends were convinced that Job’s suffering had to be tied to some sin, and that the only way to stop his suffering was through repentance. Eventually, Job got tired of the back and forth with his friends and basically shut down his conversation with them.

In the final chapters of Job, the Lord answered Job, telling him to put on his big boy pants and answer the questions God proposed:

 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?”

“Who determined its measurements…”

“Have you entered into the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?”

“Did you give the horse his might?”

“Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high?”

“Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?”

After these questions and many more, Job answered God: 

“Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further.”

Understanding the book of Job is a lot like trying to understand our own lives. Like Job, when we go through seasons of suffering, we tend to focus on the causes of our suffering or sometimes why God allows suffering. One lesson from Job is that when we suffer it is better to simply trust God because he knows more and promises to be present with us in our suffering.

Another lesson we learn from Job is that we will get through our suffering when we focus on the greatness of our God instead of the greatness of our suffering. Where we focus makes a difference in what and who we see.

When we go through seasons of suffering, we will likely have friends who are not helpful because they think they have all the answers. The best friend to have when we suffer is one who knows that we do not know what God knows and that our best posture during suffering and all of life is one of surrender and praise to the God who knows all things, loves us completely, and is working a grand plan of renewal for us and for the world.

Psalm 104 is a good companion to the book of Job in that it reminds us where to focus and on the power and wisdom of God who constantly surrounds us.

One caution for us when we read how the book of Job resolves. After God calls Job’s friends to repent of their arrogance and has Job pray for them, God restores all of Job’s fortunes and gives him a new family. It is a happy ending. We should not expect that we will receive financial blessings at the end of our seasons of suffering. However, we can trust that ultimately God will renew and restore us, maybe on this side of eternity but certainly when Jesus returns. And in the meantime, we can lean into the beautiful family of Christian brothers and sisters who God has given us in this life and with whom we will feast at the banquet table of God when we meet Jesus face to face.

Father, we confess that we do not understand our seasons of suffering, yet we choose to trust in you through every dark cloud. Give us wisdom to be the kind and supportive friends to those who suffer. Today we place all of our hope in you. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Your Time with God’s Word
Job 38:1-7, 12-18, 39:19, 26-27, 40:1-24, 42:2-12, 14-17; Psalm 104:1-35 ESV

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