They Just showed up

Job 2:11-13

 

“Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him.   And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven.   And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.”

 

Ray Still our pastor often reminds us that showing up is 95% of ministry and that is what we are observing with Job’s three friends.  For seven days they show Job sympathy and the Scriptures tell us at a distance they saw Job and did not recognize him.  Do not get hung up with the three men tearing their robes or throwing dust in the air, that was a tradition of that day, and that is not what is important, they wept and waited.  Yes, they did not speak, but were there for seven days waiting on their friend to speak.

 

Many of you have been the witness to a parent or family member having cancer or some other sickness that has disfigured them and know the pain that it caused to both the person and you.  I worked with a very talented salesman in the Houston market and because of his lifestyle he encountered aids.  In the last week of his life I went to visit him in the hospital and like the three friends of Job, I did not recognize my co-worker and knew this might be my last time to share with him about God’s love for him.  I told him that God loved him so much that He had His Son become a man and take his place and mine on a cross and paid for all sin.  That by faith he could ask God to forgive him and enter into a personal relationship with the Father who loved him.  His reply was I went to Houston Baptist College and tried but it did not work, and I do not want to talk about it anymore.  

 

My wife’s dad was raised in a home without a mother, there were four brothers, often men would try to get Raymond to attend church, but he had no interest.  Our daughter at a very young age wrote her granddad a letter telling him about how she had asked Jesus to come into her life and was praying that he would do so.  On his death bed Jan and I once more pleaded with him to not leave this earth without getting thing right with God.  He was in a coma by that time and yet when we began to share how much God loved him, we witnessed fear and maybe even anger, that was not how anyone wants to remember a person they love.

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice