Look at Me!

“But now, if you’re willing, look at me. I won’t lie to your face.” Job 6:28

“Look at me,” Job cries out to his friends. “If you’re willing.” It is said the eyes are the windows to the soul. I wonder if his friends had actually avoided eye contact with Job as they tried to “comfort” him with their black-and-white theology that had an answer for every ailment. Their theology was sterile, without the human touch that fleshes out mere theories of the Eternal.

They were unwilling to look him in the eye, see his pain, and admit they didn’t understand why God would allow him to suffer so. If they had looked into his eyes instead of parroting teachings they probably heard at a “Heal ‘Em Good” seminar, they might have actually been able to bring Job some consolation.

Job had been desperately afflicted, losing his sons and daughter in a fire, his crops, his cattle, and all his belongings. He was pierced with horrible pain as the boils burst upon his skin. He was in so much agony he tried scraping the wounds with bits of pottery to bring even a moment of relief.

We are good at offering advice to the wounded. It is so easy to leave them with “Five Principles for Getting God to Heal You” or “Three Reasons Anyone Suffers”. We do not have to invest much in the person if we simply tick down a list of possible sins that have kept the person from receiving a respite from their pain.

It is with good intentions, most of the time. We truly do care about the people who are hurting. But, we cannot bear the thought that we have nothing to offer. So, we speak platitudes, suggest ways they may have offended God, give them names of doctors, hospitals and recommend treatment we heard worked for the uncle of a friend of our cousin. It is all in good-hearted desire to help.

But it requires so little of ourselves. We leave the pamphlet on how to receive a healing and run on home for supper. Meanwhile Job is still aching. He is still boiling with pain, suffering with questions and arm-wrestling with a God whom he thought he understood.

Job, and sufferers like him, surely wish we would look them in the eye. In Job’s case, he knew his friends/accusers would not see the faults they were implying were cause for his pain. But, even if there is some failing to find, the eye-to-eye intimacy is more real and more appreciated than the rote repetitions of sterile theology.

“Look at me,” he cries. “I will not lie to your face.” Perhaps that is what we are afraid of. If we look the sufferer square in the eyes we will have to face their pain. If we disengage from them emotionally, we can go home believing just about anything we want. But, if we intimately walk into their pain, look into the windows of their soul, we may be overcome with the suffering. That can be quite uncomfortable.

But, that is what God did for us in Christ. Our sin and our suffering were deeper than any squeeze bottle ointments could cure. God actually entered into our very nature, took on the pain of human life, tempted in all ways, yet without sin. How dare we act any less gracious than the God who loved us best.

Next time I come across a sufferer, I want God’s help to look them in the eye and truly feel the pain they bear. I want to come face to face with their questions and resist the temptation to solve their problem with my platitudes. Looking in the face of another’s pain, we are forced to either open our own hearts or walk away. Having sensed their suffering, the middle ground of a bystander lecturing upon the meaning of pain is no longer an option for us.

Sometimes we can only hug the sufferer, our arms around their shoulders, crying out with them to a God whom we, also, do not always understand.