Daily Devotion for Lent 2025, Day 16

Today's Reading: Job, Chapter Sixteen

Job is in a difficult place.  He feels that no one is on his side.

His friends have been no comfort and have made him feel worse by blaming him for all the ills that have transpired.  He also feels that God for whom he perceives to be the author of these tragedies, has also come against him.

One of the ways that humans have tried to break down people has been to isolate them.  As people are social by nature, when our perception is that we are truly alone, our mental and emotional health begins to suffer.  It takes a truly resilient person to stand alone.

When I served through disaffiliation as a district superintendent, in many places, I found myself standing up for The United Methodist Church against the majority.  Many times, I voiced my disappointment as to the way our denomination had been portrayed by the leadership of the church.  It could be a lonely time indeed.  At one of the first churches where I had to oversee a vote, I remember Rev. Dr. Mark Foster being willing to stand alongside me (this was not his church).  He didn't know what I was going to say or how the vote would turn out.  But he was my friend and sat as my second in case I needed some advice.  He proved to be a good sounding board that day as a motion for reconsideration arose.  We found ourselves in new territory!

What does it mean to be alone?

This may have been one of the only votes for reconsideration across the denomination.  I've not heard of others. Both votes failed to achieve the necessary threshold, and the church remained United Methodist.

When a friend has your back, no matter the circumstances, it is easier to face the storm.

I can only imagine what Job must have experienced with all his loss, combined with the feelings of abandonment.  Theologically, I have never felt alone because I've always understood God to be walking alongside me.  It would be a dark place indeed to believe that God was against you as well.

Jesus on the cross cries out that he has been forsaken by God.  In a way, God, as the divinity in Jesus Christ, is experiencing what Job experienced.  

People today still experience this isolation.  How do we help people cope?  How do we make a meaningful connection that says, "I've got your back"?

Prayer for the day:

Grant us grace, O God, not to pass by suffering or joy without eyes to see.  Give us understanding and sympathy, and guard us from selfishness, that we may enter into the joys and sufferings of others.  Use us to gladden and strengthen those who are weak and suffering; that by our lives we may help others to believe and serve you, and shed forth your light which is the light of life.  Amen.

Prayer by H. R. L. Sheppherd, Church of England, 20th Century

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