Job. Chapter Seven. That’s where I was yesterday.

The title is Job’s Life Seems Futile, at least that’s how my Bible labels it. Here are some of my favorite verses:

“So am I allotted months of vanity

And nights of trouble are

appointed me.

My days are swifter than a weaver’s

shuttle,

And come to an end without hope.

Therefore I will not restrain my

mouth;

I will speak in the anguish of my

spirit,

I will complain in the bitterness of

my soul.

Leave me alone, for my days are but

a breath.

Why then do You not pardon my

transgression

And take away my iniquity

For now I will lie down in the dust

And You will seek me, but I will 

not be.”

Job 7:3-8

People like happy stories. I don’t tend to write them. I think happiness is fleeting and often a liar. But joy, joy is what Job is searching so hard for. That savior who can pardon his transgression and take away his iniquity.

Jesus. Job is yearning for Jesus.

We have Jesus. We don’t have to implore God for something we already have. But Satan will work to blind our minds to the depths of God’s forgiveness. When you struggle mentally, it can be really difficult to hold onto the truth of something like that.

I was sent an article yesterday about Elijah and his mental health. Here, a man, a prophet of God, struggling with bouts of anxiety and depression and loneliness. How can that be?

How can it not?

When you live for Christ, the road is not smooth. It’s rocky and narrow and the farther you walk, the farther you are from everyone else. The Church are those next to you, maybe a little ahead or a little behind, who know the same unpleasant steps, the same throbbing heartache of walking a cleft path.

Everyone else on the wider, smoother road is laughing. They know happiness. But happiness, fleeting and often a liar, is no match for the joy that comes when your foot will no longer know worn earth but the brilliant streets of God’s new creation.

It’s a truth Elijah fully knows now. 

So Job’s life does seem futile, especially from our small, dusty perspectives. But Christ’s work on the cross gives it purpose.

It gives us purpose too.