Speaking Truthfully about Life

There's a skill we often lack in the Christian world. Here it is - to speak truthfully about life, to describe honestly what's going on in our hearts and minds, and to express it audibly. There tends to be a superficiality to our faith that fails to let the sufferers cry, the sinful confess, and the one in misfortune express his frustrations with God. We expect people to be quiet and go to church far too much. We do so in defiance of the model laid out for us in the scriptures time and again and most notably with Job. 

Job has held on now for 25 chapters of harassing speech from his friends. You have to imagine that they have only added salt to the wounds of his heart from all the trouble life has given him. But now after three cycles of conversations with them, Job has not given in. You have to credit him with either a strong sense of stubbornness or a very strong sense of conviction about his perspective on life. I give him the latter. Job knows his suffering is uncalled for and he will hold on to that mindset no matter what the self-imposed experts have to say.

Job 27:2–6 (ESV) “As God lives, who has taken away my right, and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter, 3 as long as my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils, 4 my lips will not speak falsehood, and my tongue will not utter deceit. 5 Far be it from me to say that you are right; till I die I will not put away my integrity from me. 6 I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go; my heart does not reproach me for any of my days.

There are several key commitments Job makes here that we would do well to imitate in our times of frustration and trouble. Instead of just dealing with it and pretending everything is okay, Job models a willingness to stand in the storm and make what's really going on in his heart known. 

First, he knows God is the one who has kept him alive in verse 3. The reference to nostrils harkens us back to the moment of Adam's creation. 

Genesis 2:7 (ESV) then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

Yes, we can be frustrated with God and life. But we ultimately must resolve to know that only God gives us life and keeps us alive. 

Second, he will only share what he knows. He will not lie or mislead. He will not pretend or postulate. He's going to stay true to the witness of his heart concerning his trouble. How often we need to stop pretending and have a place where we can give vent to our innermost troubles. 

Third, he will not let those who offer opinions the most frequently to shape what he knows to be true. I think the enemy really loves to repeat falsehoods until we believe them to be true. Job stands strong in the face of repeated attacks and accusations. 

There's a wonderful testimony to this moment. It's a moment of honest frustration with life and no one from the outside is going to let Job become what would be disingenuous to himself and what he knows of the Lord. 

We can be frustrated with what God allows. We must not just pretend everything is okay. And we can follow Job's lead to let the Lord know we want answers. He's not surprised or troubled by what's troubling us. If anything, the suffering is a chance to let intimacy with the Lord advance.