All the Experts

Job 12:1 I'm sure you speak for all the experts, and when you die there'll be no one left to tell us how to live.

Job is speaking sarcastically to his friend Zophar, who has come to provide comfort in Job's distress, and provides no comfort at all. When things aren't going well, it seems there is no shortage of advice. But is that what people need in their times of trouble? Do we who give advice really think they don't know what to do? That people can't figure out for themselves how to proceed? When tragedies happen, like they have happened to Job, most people know what to do; the difficulty is in figuring out how to be with whatever has happened, and all the feelings that are stirred up. So the problem then becomes, for those who visit the afflicted one, how do I sit with all the stuff that comes up for me in the face of this tragedy? Because if I really see the truth of it, I have to admit it could happen to me, too, and that's downright scary. To get around that, I make it somehow the other person's fault. In Job's day it was, "you must have sinned, you must have done something wrong for God to punish you this way." Today, it's, "they must not have eaten the right things, didn't have the right habits, they must have done something to invite this illness or tragedy." By blaming the victim, I can convince myself that their fate is under their control, and therefore, I won't have to face whatever it is because I'll do it right. Because the scariest thing to admit is that we have no control over our fates, ultimately, none at all. And how to sit with that is what the spiritual path is all about.

Prayer: Dear God, You have created a world for us that is full of dangers and uncertainty. Help us place our trust in You to get us through whatever we have to get through in this life without surrendering to the numbness of fear. Amen