On the Roller Coaster

In his book, Ruthless Trust, Brennan Manning poses this challenge to our settled and safe ways of faith.  

“If we could free ourselves from the temptation to make faith a mindless assent to a dusty pawnshop of doctrinal beliefs, we would discover with alarm that the essence of biblical faith lies in trusting God…The faith that animates the Christian community is less a matter of believing in the existence of God than a practical trust in [God’s] loving care” (Manning, Ruthless Trust, page 6).  

In other words, Radical Loss challenges us to discern whether we trust more in our own settled certainty on in God’s steadfast care in all circumstances.  This question will confront Job and his friends in quite different ways.  But it is a question they will have in common.

The Apostle Paul responds to the same question as he speaks to the Philippian Christians.  In Philippians 4:11-13 (NRSV), he writes these words to his friends: 

“…I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”  

Paul comes to this place of peace after many struggles and trials.  I would never believe these words from someone who is a stranger to suffering and tragedy.  But these words ring true from someone who has learned through long experience to trust in God’s loving care.  Perhaps we will come to that place as we walk with Job along his path.

If trauma throws us out of our familiar range of equilibrium, as Mark Umbreit suggests, then the solution will not be to return to that familiar range.  That option has been destroyed by the experience of trauma itself.  Experimental psychology supports that conclusion, especially when the traumatic experiences are intense and cover a short time span.

Instead a new range will be constructed if healing is to occur.  Umbreit shares these words about the new lives of crime victims: “When they do establish a new sense of balance, it will be a different ‘graph’ of normal highs and lows than described that individual’s equilibrium prior to the trauma.  It will have new boundaries and a new definition” (Victim Sensitive Victim offender Mediation Training Manual, page 43).  By the end of the story, it seems that Job will receive the gift of that new “graph.”  But that is to get ahead of ourselves a bit.

After all, we have thirty-five chapters of dialogue to work through before we get to that new “graph.”  Finding the new balance comes neither quickly nor easily.  Umbreit describes the process for crime victims:

“The reconstruction of the new equilibrium is an emotional process that resembles a roller coaster.  It is not a linear process in which victims go from grief to a new life.  There are ups and downs.  Eventually a new equilibrium will be established.  It will be a different balance in life than before.  It will be a difficult process, and for most victims it will take a long time.  It includes surviving bad days in order to reach good days.  Crisis intervention and supportive [action] help victims move toward a new equilibrium more quickly” (Victim Sensitive Victim offender Mediation Training Manual, page 48).

In a later chapter we will examine what it takes for Job to experience healing and to move toward that new equilibrium.  

For now, however, we can see how that works out in his life if we read Job 42:11.  Job’s brothers and sisters “and all who had known him before” came to his house with the ancient equivalent of casseroles and hot dishes.  They “showed him sympathy” and “comforted him.”  The first term is more active than the English word “sympathy” might indicate.  They wailed with Job and engaged in mourning rituals with him.  Then they offered him the peace and rest that the Hebrew word for “comfort” indicates.

What matters for our thinking now is that none of this healing ministry could have happened, it seems, until this process of a new equilibrium had begun.  We’ll explore that process as we continue our conversation together.