The story of Job in the Old Testament reminds us that characters depicted in the Bible are very much like us, as they struggle through difficult times and grapple with their faith in God.
Job has everything taken away from him suddenly one day, and he falls into bitterness with God. His health takes on a toll as he is inflicted with a terrible skin disease and his wife advises him to give up on God, as it does not look as if God is helping Job out of his misery. Added on to his miseries are his friends who have given him poor advice so that he can make amends with God and get back into God’s favour. As he engages in a bitter rant with God, Job realises that he does not really know himself very well and he needs to continue to build his faith in God to understand God’s mystery.
Job’s story is a lesson on faith and patience in being open and receptive towards God and it serves as a reminder to us that no matter what happens to us, God is always with us. More importantly, this biblical story serves another purpose of teaching us to not assume that if something bad befalls on us, or on others, it means that God is angry with us and is punishing us for what we have done, as seen in the advice given by Job’s three companions, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.
This story is extremely poignant because too often, we think we do certain things such as giving advice to friends, as being acts of love. In fact, we may be doing more harm than good, and drive them further away into their corner. As we encounter people of faith struggling with their sexuality and are terrified to the point of falling into depression and even to harbouring suicide thoughts, advice or attitude that screams our concern of them being a sinner or being punished for their sin will not help.
For people who are struggling with their faith and sexuality, what they need is for someone to listen to them. Just as Jesus heals people around him in different ways through touch, admonition, prayers, or even invitation to the dinner table with him, likewise, we too can be inspired by him to reach out to those in pain and depression to comfort them, and show our love to them.
