Job and broken boxes

Job 32:2-3
Then Elihu…became angry. He was angry because Job refused to admit that he had sinned and that God was right in punishing him. He was also angry with Job’s three friends, for they made God appear to be wrong…

On my current chronological journey through the Bible, I find myself in Job. It is, I admit, one of my favorite books in the Bible. For me, it’s a lot like watching Hannity and Colmes on Fox News – you know they’re not going to agree but you watch them go back and forth saying the same things over and over again while their counterpart makes silly faces and shakes his head. Job is a constant point, counterpoint until the end of chapter 31 when Job is finally done talking and his friends are finally done talking to him. Then, just as we’re catching our breath, in walks Elihu, full of anger and empty words. It is the reason he was angry that caught my attention. Look at it with me and see what I mean.

First, he’s mad at Job. He can’t believe that he’s had to sit and listen to Job all this time and never once hear him confess his sin. Obviously, according to Elihu, God punishes bad people and therefore the punishment in Job’s life is clear-cut proof of his badness. Job has wasted his time by missing such a fundamental belief. Then there are Job’s friends. Elihu is mad at them for not taking Job to the cleaners on this oversight. But I don’t think that’s why Elihu was mad. I think he was mad because Job’s life wasn’t fitting neatly into the box. You see, religion is all about the box, and we get angry when we can’t answer questions that scream for resolution.

If we’ve learned nothing else, surely we have all learned this: life doesn’t fit into neat boxes. Life seems to be like the bulky sweater trying to be wrapped up in a shirt box from Belk. It pushes, bulges, and breaks the corners. It begs to be taped so it can be re-used on another birthday. Religion, it seems, is the taping of the box. It is our attempt to keep contained what cannot be. It is the empty, yet well-meaning, answer to the pain of another. Is it any wonder that God refuses to be found in religion? He wants to see the box destroyed. In a truth that cannot be explained in a "box worthy" way, He is actually able to use the events in our lives that are the most painful as a tool to tear away the boxes we’ve worked so hard to construct and are so proud of.

For a time, God was willing to be contained in an ark, a human body, even a tomb. But only for a time. Eventually he broke out of those boxes, and now He wants to help you break out of yours, too.

Want a resolution for the new year?

Put down the tape and stop fixing the boxes that God wants broken.

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