And so, there I found myself – having lost my business, our home, money, most of our friends, family, and most importantly, my wife (because once the cognitive issues raise their ugly head, you quickly realize that Elvis truly has left the building). My emotional repertoire seemed limited to just 3 states – sad, depressed and angry.
By now, I had stopped asking, 'What did we do to deserve this?'. I was no longer curiously searching for the why behind the terrible turn our lives had taken. I, just like Job, angrily decreed to the universe, 'Are you kidding me?!' (Although Job may have used slightly different words to express the same sentiment.)
Once I had re-located to Long Beach, I attempted to re-discover and resuscitate my spiritual core. And that's really when and how studying the Book of Job came to be a crucial part of my spiritual rescue, and actually ended up restoring my faith and ending much of my anxiety. In the story of Job, God responds to Job's angry invitation to explain Himself by appearing to Job as a whirlwind. To paraphrase liberally, God doesn't quite explain Himself, but He reminds Job that the things that Job questions are bigger than Job might truly understand.
[ME & THE BOOK OF JOB| Jonathan Strum ]