As I get older, I find that my emotions are easily aroused, whether it be in traffic, on social media, watching the news, or reading Scripture. Maybe as we age, our defenses drop or we just don’t care what people think. I hope that’s not the case.

However, as I read the book of Job, I find myself searching deep within, walking myself through Job’s story, listening to his so-called friends, waiting for answers from a silent God. Job waffles and vacillates between despair and hope in virtually every chapter, wanting God to just get it over with and end his life, to hoping in the God who redeems.

Why does Job elicit such deep inward searching? Because he typifies the human condition. We ALL will suffer. We all already have or will cry out in anguish to a God who seems distant and aloof. But isn’t that the heart of “faith?” Isn’t faith being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see, as the writer of Hebrews says?

Right now my world is relatively good. I have a roof over my head, food on my table, a wife who says she loves me, and I am richer than 99% of the world’s population. However, my day is coming. I pray that I can say, like Job, “I know that my Redeemer lives.”