Cheer up Emo kid

Job was an Emo. He had good reason to be! His oxen and donkeys were nicked and all but one of the servants looking after them were slashed (Job 1:14). A crazy fire ball engulfed all his sheep and all but one of the shepherds (Job 1:16). Three sets of Chaldean Guerrillas nabbed his camels and killed all but one of the camel handlers (Job 1:17). Next, his sons and daughters were crushed to death as their building collapsed while they were partying (Job 1:18).

Job went from having plenty to having nothing, from riches to rags. Soon he was afflicted with sores from head to toe (Job 2:7) and he sat amongst ashes self-harming himself with broken pottery (Job 2:8). Although Job didn’t know why he was suffering, he was to still recognise that in the good times and the bad times, that “the name of the LORD is to be praised” (Job 1:21).

You may not suffer like Job suffered, but you don’t have to be alive for long to know that we live in a world where EVERYONE is intimately effected by suffering. It’s pretty easy to be “Emo” about the world and the situations in which we find ourselves. How do you cheer up an Emo kid?

The answer is always Jesus. Jesus puts things into perspective. He says that suffering isn’t always the direct consequence of a particular sin (John 9:1-12), but that when others suffer it’s an opportunity to know that unless we repent and turn to him – we too will perish (Luke 13:1-5).

But more than that, Jesus knows our suffering. He is the one who can sympathise with us in our weakness, because he himself has been tempted in every way, yet was without sin (Hebrews 4:14-16). He is the one who, though without sin, suffered on the cross. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:22-25).

Finally, Jesus says there is a day coming when there will be an end to suffering for those who trust in him. No tears. No death. No mourning. No crying. No pain. (Revelation 21:1-4).

While we walk on this planet. Life won’t always be cheery. But there’s a better day coming – when those who are in Christ will be permanently cheery! “Let us hold firmly to the faith we profess”. It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming…

A round up of other “Emo” posts