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"Modern Day Job"
        by Father Dave

My first day here I remember very, very vividly.  I was walking out and there was a kid outside the front door.  He was pacing back and forth in the parking lot.  The only way I could describe it was that he reminded me of a tiger in the zoo.  And he had a hood on, and he was walking back and forth with his hands in his pockets.

I open the door to go out there, and I'm kind of afraid, you know... and he stops me cold and he sticks his finger in my face and he says, "Never let a man go hungry."
So, I say, "Do you want something to eat?"  And he came in we got him a little meal, and we came into the chapel and we eat.  Then he says, "Do you want to hear me rap?" and I say, “Sure.” And he begins to do this rap, and I can't replicate it, but it went something like this:

When I was six years old my father left me ... why me God.
When I was 10 years old, my mother went into rehab ... why me God.
When I was 16 years old my brother got shot in front of my face ... why me God.

And he had this whole litany ... this why me ... of all the things that happened in his life. 

And what I realized was I was dumbfounded, because it was like listening to a modern-day Job.   People speak about the patience of Job, but what the story is really about is saying "Oh God, why me?  I'm suffering."  And what's great about that story of Job and about this young man was that ... at the end of the story Job says why me, why did I have to suffer like this, I didn't ask for this, I was born into this.

Everyone comes to Job and tries to explain this suffering away.  They try to come up with good answers...you must have been doing something bad.  Well, God doesn't give anything to someone that they can't handle.  Person after person try to explain this suffering, and at the end of the day there is just no explaining it.

Job tells these people...nothing that you can say will replace me wanting to know from God.  And, so God comes at the end and he says to all the people who tried to explain it away with easy, slick consolations...you had it all wrong.  Job was my faithful servant...faithful because he continued to struggle.

It's the same with our kids.  This kid was being most faithful, because in the midst of all this business... in the midst of all of us telling him, hey, we can do this for you, and we can do that ...we can fix it ... this kid is saying,  “No…why?”  Why is there this ache in my soul?  He got that instinctively. 

I mean, when Christ came he didn't come to give us explanations.  He didn’t get a referral or work with a team of social workers.  He went through it with us.

God says you want to know why ... be quiet and I'll tell you why ... be quiet and I'll walk through it with you.