“There once was a man named Job who lived in the land of Uz. He was blameless—a man of complete integrity.”
– JOB 1:1

Consider for a moment how familiar you are with this phrase: “I’m going to lose it!” Though I don’t always say it with those words exactly, I know it well (and so do the people that are closest to me). Rarely does it require me to specifically announce the sentiment that generates it. I only need the right combination of fear, insecurity, frustration, loneliness, or unresolved conflict from my past to set the fertile ground for a spectacular unwinding.

If ever there were a person in the Bible who deserved to “lose it,” it’s Job. Job’s story is a famous one. It’s a story riddled with incredibly weighty questions about the nature  of God’s relationship both to humans and to their accuser, Satan. It chronicles the suffering of a man, who though full of integrity, is subjected to unimaginable loss. The Book of Job records the conversations of Job’s “wise” friends who imagine Job is deserving of his punishment for something he did that he’s unwilling to confess. They pile-on in his grief, begging him to confess something they believe he clearly had not reconciled with God.

Yet, Job is honest and unwavering. He has suffered and does suffer. He asks the great answerless question we all ask in the midst of trial: “Why?” He suspects, like all of us do, that there will be a satisfactory justification for his disease, financial ruin, and the death of his loved ones. But, we know the answer already — that there is no “because” big enough to address the depth of the pain behind that “why.” Job encounters God, not in his tenderness, but in his majesty — that undeniable mystery of God’s other-ness, his ungraspable supremacy.

In reading this woeful narrative of sorrow and struggle, I can’t escape myself in it: What is the value of having integrity at all? Why does he continue, throughout the story, to be committed to a life of obedience locked in an honest intimacy with the God of the universe who has not made his life easier, more convenient, or safer? Why doesn’t he resign himself to the idea that none of his devoted life of faith to God has resulted in any observable benefit? Why doesn’t he lose it?

I think the answer lies in what is meant by “complete integrity.” Integrity has its roots in the idea of being integrated: whole. Consider the alternative: disintegrated: falling apart — losing it. Maybe, when we “lose it” we’re actually describing the reality of becoming less of ourselves. Job is the story of a person who is unswervingly committed to being whole — being the one God intended him to be. The experience of “losing it” ALWAYS leaves us wondering where “we” went in the course of some outburst. To exclaim “I’m losing it!” is to declare, “I am disintegrating!” To be full of integrity is to be fully us. That, after all is said and done, is who God created us to be…us. Our faith journey is to live in the fullest reality of who God is shaping us to become — our fully integrated self.

This week we’ll pick up where we left off in our series: THINGS I WISH JESUS NEVER SAID, coming face to face with one of the scariest things Jesus ever said. Don’t miss it. But, before that, we’ll host DATE NIGHT on Friday from 6:30pm – 9:30pm. Let us know if you’re coming and whether or not you’ll need childcare by registering here.

See you soon,

Jeff