Dear Job...

Dear Job,

Lately I have been struggling

The Spirit and the flesh

Seem quite at odds within this rack

Of sorry humanness

So, I would like to ask you

For advice on how to be

The person God intended

Job, can you help me?

I’ve worn sack-cloth and ashes

And it didn’t change a thing

I’ve wept and wailed and questioned God

On ‘why this suffering?’

And everyone that stands around

to offer up their views

makes me quite cross because they’ve never

stumbled in my shoes

or sat where everybody points

and suggests that perhaps

I’ve been dreadfully wicked

And thus provoked God’s wrath

I stagger in a costume

Drained of joy and energy

A mind and body battleground,

Oh Job, can you help me?

From: Physically and mentally depleted

Dear physically and mentally depleted;

The body is a temple, not an idol, sometimes we

Get so caught up in ‘my-my’ hurt

That we neglect to see

How ‘God in us’, Immanuel

Desires that we trust

Instead of seeking answers

In these agonies of dust

Sack-cloth and ashes cannot change

That place where change must start

Yet, often we ourselves estrange

The Hand the moves the heart

...now tell me, foolish woman 

Shall we accept only the good?

And while bulging jowls drip

Curse God because He tests the faith

We boast from fattened lips

Say, where were you when God laid out

The foundations of earth

Or measured its dimensions

Or breathed very Time to birth?

Brace yourself if you so dare

To challenge God with ‘why’

Then answer,

Where were you when He

Splayed seas beneath the sky

And set the bars of shore in place

Earth’s oceans to contain

And hung the galaxies in space

And cut channels for rain

Dare you correct the One who spawned

Leviathan's great might

Or spreads the sky like hard, cast bronze 

Beneath the womb of Light?

Tell me, how do the clouds hang, poised?

Then, can this cloth explain

The mind of He whose excellence

No vessel can contain?

And then, when He says trust in Me

Why is it not enough?

Why do you think you need to see

The mystery of His Love?

For who of us has understood

The thoughts of Holy God

Will you only accept the good?

Tell me, fool-headed clod

Why is it not enough to know

Without reason revealed?

Since Time began, why is it man

Has argued and appealed

where changeless through the ages still

God’s reply vexes dust

“Do not dismay, be not afraid

Believe in Me and trust”

Speaking from experience,

Your humble servant, Job

This month each person in our writer's group was assigned to seek advice from a Bible-character.

Mine was Job.

Have you read the Book of Job lately?

What a, what a book!! 

This poem was shamefully easy to write as I drew

from my lack-of-trust training...

because every fear I have

is a matter of trust

...the more I trust

the less I fear.