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Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Today's Frontline Devotion March 6, 2006 Does It Matter at All? |
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FRONTLINE DEVOTION FOR MONDAY, MARCH 6, 2006 by Fritz Foltz
Job 14:1-14 mortal, born of woman, few of days and full of trouble, up like a flower and withers, flees like a shadow and does not last. Do you fix your eyes on such a one? Do you bring me into judgment with you?
Most of us know the story of Job. God’s best suffers, suffers just about as bad as a person can suffer. It makes clear good people do not always win in this world.
Throughout most of the book Job and his friends ask, “Why? If God is in charge, why don’t people who do what God wants, always win?” The friends in one way or other say it must be that Job is not as good as everyone thinks he is. Job rejects this answer, asking questions that people still ask thousands of years later.
His first asks how God can even know a person when the universe is so vast and life so short. The universe is not “Cheers” where everyone knows your name. How could it be? If God does not even know your name, how can he hold you accountable for the way you lead your life?
On reflection Job knows the world is like “Cheers”. God does know our names. So he asks a second question, “Even if you do know my name, the universe is so vast and my life so short, how can what I do make any difference in the whole scheme of things?”
So Job asks God to just forget who he is. “Look away so I can have some peace. Life is too short to change who I am anyway. If I am doing evil, I cannot stop. It’s not fair to ask any more of me. Just leave me alone”.
Quite frankly, God’s answer to Job does not satisfy us very much. In a sense God says, “Oh, be quiet! I have better things to do than listen to your whining. You have it all backwards. I am not accountable to you. You are accountable to me, no matter how short your life. Just be quiet and do what I say”.
Jesus’ answer is much more satisfying: Until evil is overcome, good people will suffer in this world. Sacrificial love must be the pattern of the good life for those who want to serve God. Then Jesus, the ultimately good person, suffers for us. He takes on the evil of the world and promises the shortness of this life does not prevent a wonderful future with God.
Prayer: I am frightened, Father, when I contemplate the shortness of my life. Enable me to relive Jesus’ Passion this Lenten season that I can find hope in the future. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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All are welcome to join and share in our Devotional Ministry on the "Frontlines" of the world. Frontline Devotions are sent via email daily. Sign up by clicking on the box to the left. Pastor Dave welcomes feedback. Contact him at pastordave@goodshepherdonline.org. |
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