"To Whom Can We Go?"

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Job 6:1-4, 8-17, 21
Acts 9:32-43
John 6:60-71
In a way I feel Job’s pain. In my life, as in the lives of others, conflict arises, angry words are shared, and even the important things seem too difficult to accomplish. As such times our bodies may not be covered with sores, bur our souls certainly can be. At such times I’m likely to share in Job’s lament, “What is my strength that I should wait? And what is my end, that I should be patient?” (Job 6:11)

At such times, though, it is helpful to recall accounts such as the one we’ve read this morning from Acts. There Peter heals a paralyzed man named Aeneas (Acts 6:34) and revives a dead woman named Dorcus (v. 40). Acting in the name of Jesus Christ Peter is empowered to touch people at the very place they need healing, and while I’m neither paralyzed nor dead (thank God), I rejoice that God can and will touch me with a healing hand and give meaning back to my life. Soon we are all able to let go of Job’s lament and instead join with Peter’s confession in the gospel of John, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life?”

At the height of the storm, when our pain is greatest and the conflict is most severe, God comes to us and with the power to heal and to make calm. I encourage all who are struggling this day, whether with physical, mental, or spiritual, to embrace in your lives the work that God is doing there, and the love that God holds out to you. In this way alone can we know that our laments will be silenced and our praise amplified.

Prayer: Lord, the conflict and the anger sometimes wash over us like waves from the sea. Help us to call on you and to trust in you name in the future. Amen.