Job

We all know that the start of Job's story is a horrible tale, a truly sad beginning. Some of us receive this but then simply dismiss it as purely allegorical; then perhaps it didn't really happen and this was not a real man's pain. Many of us actually do interpret the story as rooted in time-that is to say-factual, not merely symbolic and because it is an infamous part of the Pentateuch, we sort of marginalize it into some Sunday school category. The point is: this story of tremendous loss is real. It happens every single day all around the world. Take, for example, these two stories that we have come across within one week of our stay here. First, the testimony of a Sri Lankan girl, named Thulasi, from the Northern territories (the area most afflicted with the war as this was the rebel headquarters) who is currently taking care of her younger sister. This young girl is no older than ten years of age and the title of her report from the North reads, "a baby carrying a baby"-surely this is an appropriate caption as Thulasi is now her sister's primary caretaker in a land riddled with chaos and desperation. As the story goes Thulasi's family was huddled inside a homemade bunker when her parents ran out to retrieve something from their home just yards away. Thulasi lost her parents to an air force raid that day and her story is not the only one of its kind. 

Another example are the the girls that live beneath us-the girls who have been rescued from abusive situations. I like to refer to them as the, "church girls" because they live here on the campus and they are involved in serving the church in numerous capacities: from laying out the mats during communion to cooking and cleaning-they are amazingly strong and courageous people. As orphans, these girls have one another, they have the Church and they have their Abba; beyond that they know no biological kin. 

You see there are several stories like this; stories of loss and suffering and unimaginable pain. My time, my experience has not afforded me the luxury of being apologetic about these encounters. And that is why, even though I bear in mind my own junior highers back home who may read this, I cannot spare the details of this last story. The details about how children just like them have been abducted (or falsely adopted rather) into sex slavery. Apparently, after the tsunami swept through the Southern villages, some people from the West came through the camps (that had been setup up for survival in the aftermath) and found children who had no one to take care of them. These people from the West were allowed to adopt these kids who had just lost their parents, siblings, families, in some cases-everyone. Consequently, they were then sold into slavery, their bodies into bondage. Bearing in mind this dastardly record, I ask myself why I was meant to ponder such things; I ask God what sense there is in His plan for this type of exposure. The questions I should also be asking myself are what am I going to do about it; what was I meant to do with this knowledge? The answer to that question is still very much in the works; it is a question that I won't let a day go to waist for. 

The challenge that I will pose to any readers out there is to think about these people for a moment; consider them and then read about Job again as if it were about a real man's true and deep pain. Maybe you will understand why Job's friends wept as they did when they approached him. Then think about everything you know about war; everything you've ever heard about warfare. Are the realities of warfare constructive? Or is war a necessary medium for construction; resolution; communication? Or if you believe in peace? Love? the Gospel. . . ? Where do they fit in? And if you're thinking to yourself: haven't men warred since the beginning of time? The truth is: that statement is fundamentally false; not all men have waged war against another. That presumption is a Western recollection that is not rooted in a global, historic record as many civilizations have posited themselves wholly opposed to war. And in case this orientation against war appears a neo-hippie ideology, I assure you the Prince of Peace would have been a lifetime subscriber.