Job’s great message is not just to hang in there with God; passionately disputing as one does with a real friend.
There is a second message as well; God often is placing a comma where we imagine we are seeing a period. Our friends in the UCC have used this language to talk about the development of doctrine. They’re right to do this. It reminds us that God’s narrative, our history is still unfolding before our eyes.
But I think this is even more true when we talk about our experience of pain and suffering. If our experience inevitably ended in suffering, then we’d be right to rage against a Universe that ultimately ends life with pain for us and the people we love.
But the story of Jesus does not end with the cross. Our stories do not either. Because even in the midst of our pain, there are moments of promise that remind us that we are right to have HOPE.

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