Published 8/7/19
Read Job 10:18-19
"Why did you bring me out from the womb? Would that I had died before any eye had seen me and were as though I had not been, carried from the womb to the grave."
Reflect
• How is your pain blinding you to the joys in your life?
• Job's pain prompted him to plead with God for understanding. It also blinded him to any of the joy he had experienced in the past or that might come in the future. Can you relate? (Please explain.)
•We can help others deal with life's disappointments by being their guide when they are blinded by pain. Are you willing to do this?
We find in Job 10 that Job continued to share his pain. His words resounded with despair and hopelessness as he pleaded with God for an answer.
He continued to acknowledge God as Creator. In verse 12, he noted that God had granted him life, steadfast love, and care.
Rather than providing comfort though, this seemed to cause Job even more pain. He didn't understand how a loving God would allow such tragedy.
Verses 18 and 19 are particularly heartbreaking as Job lamented his own birth. The pain Job was feeling wiped out any joy he had ever experienced in his life.
God has created us with a marvelously complex mind and the ability to feel an amazing range of emotions. In the course of just a week (or sometimes a single day!), we can encounter situations that fill us with joy, anger, love, and sorrow. Over the course of a lifetime, that's a ton of memories!
Yet we don't hold all of those experiences and memories in our mind at once. Rather, they lie dormant, coming to the forefront when prompted by some type of internal or external trigger. For Job, pain disrupted this system. He couldn't remember what it was like to feel joy and saw little chance of having any more in the future.
Maybe you have tried to comfort a friend who is blinded by pain. Maybe you have been there yourself.
Just as someone who is physically blind may rely on a guide dog to help them navigate their surroundings, someone who is blinded by pain needs a guide as well. In this case, the guide is another person to come alongside and help them remember past joys, those precious memories that bring a smile and warm the heart. The guide can also assist with creating new memories, assisting the hurting one in navigating their life going forward.
Pray
Lord, sometimes the disappointments in life hurt so much I can't see beyond them. Please remove the blinders from me and help me to feel joy again. Amen.