Thursday 4th June - Sitting in Silence

DAILY BYTE

We’ve heard this week that Job’s friends respond to his suffering by hearing about it, journeying to witness it, seeing it with their own eyes, and now they respond by sitting.

They sat with him for seven perfect days. Seven perfect nights. The number seven signifies perfection or completion in the scriptures. It was perfect - humanity sitting in solidarity with humanity in the presence of the suffering God. And no words were necessary.

Later on in the Book of Job, Job’s friends make long speeches, attempting to comfort and trying somehow to justify his suffering. But, a scholar named Gutierrez says that “every true statement [in the Book of Job] comes out of silence.”

Because from this silence – which no one fills with trite phrases or nervous chitchat – comes a great moment of truth.

Out of the silence, Job curses the day he was born.

Have you ever heard someone who’s really struggling curse the day they were born?

“I wish I had never been born.”

That statement comes out of a place of deep hurt, doesn’t it?

But the presence of Job’s friends sitting with him in the silence allows room for the Spirit to groan for that hurt. Groaning grief must be expressed for true healing to occur. It is crucial for Job and for us to be able to lament, to find our voice of weeping to God – even if the things that we have to say are ugly. Even if the stories we have to tell are difficult and painful to hear.

Are we afraid of the truth that the world is a painful place? Are we afraid of the silence that will make room for that truth to be heard?

Is that why, when we hear of suffering we are hesitant to go, to see, to sit in its midst? Is it too real? Does it bring up too much of our own pain?

Even if we are afraid or hesitant, Job tells us that we must allow for silence – that we must stop filling life with noise and nervous talking. We must sit in solidarity with others, allowing the space for the Spirit to groan and bring laments of truth and healing.

Because we know that life is not always “ok.” As fragile human beings, we must admit that we do not always have all the answers and that sometimes life seems to be covered in boils, almost infected by fears and pain.

And yet, in all of this lament, God is with us, groaning and weeping, and leading us to rejoicing, turning our mourning into dancing.

What are you lamenting today?

GUIDING SCRIPTURE

Job 2:13 (ESV)

And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.

IF YOU ARE FEELING BRAVE…

Pray and ask God to give you the courage to go and sit with someone who is suffering.