I have been listening to the rough draft version of my song, "You Are Here."  Presently it is being fine tuned for the listening ear by the amazing producer, John Nanni.

This morning I was reading in Job while listening to the song.

You see, the song is about a time in our lives - may it be a long, long season or a short season, when life is...well, tough.  Where happiness is a difficult place to get to and you have to really work hard on embracing the joy.
It makes me think of Job, where God allowed Satan to inflict many sufferings on this man. 

The entire book of Job (42 chapters) is this scene of suffering and pain.  In the first chapter alone he loses his property and children.  One person runs in to tell him the bad news and another runs in interrupting to give more bad news and then another comes in interrupting to give more bad news.  And yet a FOURTH comes in to tell him about a house falling on his children. 

Bam!  Bam!  Bam!  BAM!   All at once.  I can't imagine.

And then God allows boils on his skin.

So after all this Job's three friends come over with their "new age" wisdom and they aren't much help.  They tell Job his suffering is because he has sinned- and if he was innocent these things would not have happened.
Bad things don't happen to good people.  Which was the "wisdom" of that day.
So sorry, but you brought this upon yourself, you bad bad person.
So helpful and so comforting, right?  Geez!

Back and forth the friends speak and Job speaks and near the end God speaks putting Job in his rightful place reminding Job of the majesty of who He is.  Were you there are creation?  Can you tame the Leviathan, the sea serpent?

But at the end of the book, Job is restored.
BUT, here is where it is interesting (thanks for staying with me to this conclusion)

Job 42
verse 10
"And the LORD restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends.  Indeed the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before."

When was Job restored?
After he prayed for his friends.
The very friends that were quick to tell Job he was such a sinner after he lost everything.

Wow.

By the way, I am absolutely amazed at Job's first response after he lost so much including his children at the very begininng- chapter 1
Do you know what he did?
He tore his robe, shaved his head...but he also
fell to the ground and worshiped!!!

He worshiped the LORD!

"Blessed be the name of the LORD" he says in verse 21.

If this doesn't put us in our place and make us feel like complete whiners, when we look at our own lives at times and think "poor poor pitiful me"...we are really blind.
May we have the ability to keep our focus even when life seems to be at its worst.

And may we have a better support group than Job's depressing, cruel and spiritually incorrect friends.