Good and Bad

Often people don't see the humour in the Bible. For me there is a particularly funny episode in Job 2, which involves an interaction between Job and Mrs Job. I like to imagine Job as a sort of Victor Meldrew character and Mrs Job as Margaret (only because it makes it funny, not because they're particularly similar).

Job as portrayed by Richard Wilson
(Image from BBC via The Guardian)

Job had tragedy after tragedy befall on him. All his children had died and his livestock, and his wealth with it, had gone. Then he was struck by boils and he sat on a pile of ash scraping them with broken pottery. Mrs Job comes along and says, "Why are you still trying to retain your integrity. Just curse God, roll over and die."

Then Job said, "You're talking like a foolish woman. If we can accept the good from God, then surely we should accept the bad."

I love this honest picture of husband and wife. But I also love what Job says afterwards, about being able to accept both the good and the bad.

A couple of posts ago I wrote about how I'd moved house. I wasn't quite settled at that point, but now I am. I'm quite enjoying my life with its new found freedom. However, my housemates are all leaving at the end of the month (not due to me, I hope). Yesterday, my landlady was at our house sorting some bits and told me that she was using this as an opportunity to change the tenancy agreements. It is to become a whole house lease, so either I find people to move in or I move out.

This was obviously frustrating, and I think my landlady felt really guilty because previously in the conversation I was telling her how I had settled in and was enjoying living there.

I was quite annoyed, not with the landlady funnily enough, but with God. I thought that this was where God intended me to be and I was annoyed that he allowed it to get messed up. I obviously need to take the bad as well as the good, and also listen to what I write myself.

Quick Questions

1. What do you say when things go wrong? Is it "I don't believe it"?
2. What has caused you to be frustrated with God recently?
3. What encouraging stories have you got of God answering prayers when you least expected it?