If you have read this far, here is what I hope you never forget.
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“No one has it worse than me.”
You may have found yourself saying that.
In the throes of battle, it can easily feel that way.
Anxiety, intrusive thoughts, OCD, fear––they can all have that effect.
If you are around these conversations enough, it’s definitely something you have heard said.
There is almost always a moment that someone struggling eventually reaches.
Usually, it’s not the first panic attack.
Usually, it’s not the first time they had an intrusive thought.
Usually, it’s not the first hard day they have had.
Usually, it is the quiet moment when they begin feeling: “Maybe I will always be like this.”
“This is just who I am.”
“This is how it’s always going to be.”
“This is what the rest of my life is going to look like.”
The thing that has been lost is not really peace, but hope.
The fear that, nothing is ever going to be different.
These are the words of a false gospel.
A story that says God has gotten it wrong.
Its message is not something bad is about to hit.
It’s that nothing good ever will.
Every heart lives by a story.
The gospel tells us that Christ is making all things new.
Anxiety begins telling a different story.
A story that says, "Nothing will ever really change."
"God has forgotten you."
"This struggle will always define you."
"Don't expect anything different tomorrow."
That is why I call it a false gospel.
Because it asks you to believe a different story than the one God has been telling from the beginning.
It asks you to believe that growth and change in Christ are not within your reach.
Hope ≠ Optimism
There is a distinction I want you to see and that is worth noting.
Optimism says:
“Don’t worry, I am sure everything is going to work out.”
Hope says:
“God is faithful regardless of how today feels.”
Optimism relies on circumstances that are out of your control.
Hope relies on the character and nature of God and your relationship to Him.
Hope recognizes that God is not some ethereal force, but a loving father who is intimately involved.
Job’s Story
It begins with the words, “There was a man in the land of Uz.”
Then, in the course of a single day, Job’s world changed.
It started with bad news.
Then, he got worse news.
Then, terrible news.
Finally, devastating news.
On that heavy day that I am referencing above, Job suffers:
Agricultural loss––which is his livelihood.
Loss of the animals he cared for and relied on for work and transportation.
Loss of his household community.
His loss of sheep and cattle, which are his means of securing food and clothing.
Loss of nearly his entire family.
The story of Job is often understated by readers in its description of loss and grief.
To lose your job, resources, wealth, status, sense of security, and even family––would be devastating.
You would have no words.
Suffering, as a word, simply falls short.
“I’ve Been Abandoned”
Those who are suffering, they often look at their loss in life, and say those very words.
To feel alone.
To feel like no one cares.
To feel like hope is an idea but not a reality.
Job looked around and felt as much.
He went further and even questioned if God has abandoned him.
The isolation and loneliness must have been crushing.
No doubt, from Job’s view, there was very little that he could look out and cling on to.
For anyone watching, it would have seemed like he was brutally unlucky or even cursed.
Outside Looking in is Easy
As the reader of the story, we have an easy role.
We look at the story, and can even skip to the end and say, “Job, don’t lose hope just yet.”
But it’s easy to forget, Job wasn’t reading his story, he was caught in the middle of it.
All he was seeing and feeling at the moment was searing loss.
He was suffering––badly––maybe worse than anyone he had ever seen.
But as readers, we are allowed to see something Job cannot.
Because, even though Job is suffering and feels totally isolated, forsaken, and abandoned.
We as the readers want to yell across the pages of the story.
Scream and say:
“Job, it looks like God is absent––but He is actually intimately involved in your story.”
As you read Job’s story, God is engaging not just in the big moments, but in the minute details.
We get to see what Job never does.
That God is there:In the beginning. At the middle. And until the end.
God loves Job.
God has not lost sight of Job.
God is working for His Glory and Job’s good.
Job Steps Out of His Story
He remembers something on that day his entire world had changed––that his God hadn't.
Job has what I like to call an “even if” moment.
He doesn’t deny his suffering.
But Job bellows out an anthem of trust in spite of everything: “I know that my Redeemer lives,” and that he will see and be with Him, someday.
Even if nothing in his story changes, Job has something larger than his circumstances to look to.
Even if he loses his own life, he knows that ultimately his future is secure in the hands of his God.
Even if he never gets his “why me?” answered, he trusts the character of God.
Easy to Say, Hard to Believe
A lot of life can be consumed by seeking symptom reduction.
Desiring an easing of suffering.
That is true of all of us.
Sometimes that relief comes as we hoped. Other times, He gives us the grace to bear up under difficult circumstances.
Either way, do not believe God is uninvolved.
Scripture from the book of Romans reminds us that God is always working through the brokenness to bring about our ultimate good.
The book of James reminds us what trials can give us steadfastness, "To make us complete and lacking nothing.”
That’s not to say recovery is not possible for those who are struggling with anxiety, fear, intrusive thoughts, OCD, and “what if” thinking––I believe it very much is.
But to remember that ultimately, the hope that those in Christ have is not merely recovery, but redemption.
Jesus, the True and Better Job
One day, I was reading, and I came across this:
Jesus is the true and better Job, the truly innocent sufferer, who then intercedes for and saves his stupid friends.
Job suffered terribly without understanding or seeing behind the scenes.
But Jesus went further.
He did not merely feel forsaken.
On the cross He cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Christ entered suffering, rejection, loss, darkness, and death itself.
And He did it willingly.
That means when suffering whispers,
“God has forgotten you,” over and over again, Christians have something Job himself could not yet fully see.
The cross.
The cross means we can never finally conclude that suffering is proof God does not love us.
Because at the very place where God's love looked most absent, He was accomplishing His greatest act of love.
Job shows us God has not abandoned us in our suffering. Jesus shows us what God can accomplish through suffering.
If you’d like to keep reading, you can find more here → Articles
And if talking it through would help you, you’re always welcome to reach out and schedule a one-on-one meeting to walk through this together.
