Hurting with others means to sit with them
In their deepest, darkest depths of despair.
Find out why the “hurt” of Job 3 is necessary to understand human suffering by watching our Truth in Two (full text below).
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Picture Credit: Josh Collingwood, Snappy Goat
FULL TEXT
Johnny Cash famously sang a song titled, “Hurt,” where he said, Everyone I know, Goes away in the end. And you could have it all, My empire of dirt . . . Cash has it right. Sometimes suffering makes what we have seem meaningless. In the Bible, Job chapter 3 reflects the honesty of our hurt, pulsating with profound passion and pain. We may not comprehend another person’s specific grief. But what we can say is we have all experienced some of what Job 3:1-10 is saying. I would encourage every listener to stop the video here to read Job 3:1-10. And I should warn you, these verses are not for the faint of heart.
Job’s lament begins as a curse from the womb, an anti-birthday-birthday. Job’s “birthday” was his “death-day,” an awful day, an awful event, one he wished had never happened. Job wishes he had never been born. “Curse the day!” The only way to do this is to wipe his birthday off the calendar. Job is in the deep throes of outrageous pain, wailing and moaning. If we saw someone like this we would probably say, “They’re beside themselves! I’ve never seen them like this before!” This is Job’s state as he curses or removes the celebration of his birth. It does not mean that Job has lost control. Job is expressing the deepest, rawest of emotions a person can express. There is no shame or sin here, only humanness.
In the Coen brother’s film O Brother, Where Art Thou? one song provides the underlying refrain: “I’m a Man of Constant Sorrow.” This is Job’s song, the lament of Job 3:1-10. Johnny Cash knew it. And if we’re honest, we know it too. Caring for others means we must sometimes sit with them through the deepest, darkest depths of despair.
My Truth in Two series during Fall 2022 is a tribute to our son Tyler Micah. We lament his death while desiring to give voice to all who suffer in any way.
[This material is drawn from a sermon I preached on Job 3 at Zionsville Fellowship (Indiana) the spring of 2008. A number of articles have used the same words and ideas since and can be found by searching for “lament” at MarkEckel.com where you can also find a tribute to my son.]