If We Are God's Masterpiece, Why Are We So Broken?

Sin results in dust, but God has a restoration plan in place.

Thrive by Daniel Popper, photo: Marianna Smiley

 

THE BOOK OF Job is one of contrasts. You see the uprightness of Job juxtaposed with the evil of Satan. Job is wealthy and healthy one moment then brought to poverty and disease in the next. But perhaps the biggest contrasts we see are the stark differences between expectation and Job's reality.

Job's friends expect that only the wicked should suffer, so they blame him for his problems.

Job knows he's innocent, but he eventually gives up trying to convince his friends and instead starts petitioning God for answers. Job essentially holds the same expectations his friends have, which renders his downtrodden reality all the more puzzling considering his blamelessness. It's the classic, Why do bad things happen to good people? question that just about every human everywhere throughout time has asked at one point or another.

In the midst of these petitions, Job asks God the following:

Job's Response to Suffering Might Make You Rethink Your Approach

 We can't see in the dark, but God can.

Observer by Mari Lezhava

 

THE ENEMY WANTS you to embrace meaninglessness.

When unfortunate, coincidental, evil, tragic, or random events jam their way into our lives, the evil one wants us to stop asking why and instead conclude that no why exists. Because when we give a giant bear hug to the idea that life is purposeless, we lose hope and such a state opens up all kinds of possibilities for Satan and his minions.

The hopeless person really has nothing left to lose.

The Best, Worst Things about Bearing God's Image

   A preview of February's email-only article.

Jared Rice

LIFE HAS A way of beating us down at times. But no matter how bad our circumstances, often the worst part is not knowing why terrible things occur.

Every month I publish an exclusive article for my email subscribers, and this month we're looking at Job 10. Job reached some depths of despair most of us will never know, but he always held on to one truth. We discuss that truth in this month's article.

If you'd like instant, free access, fill out the form below. (If you are already a subscriber, check your inbox!)

Here's a snippet of this month's exclusive:

When we open up the tenth chapter of Job, we find our protagonist in a dark place.

Of course, Job spends most of the book in metaphorical darkness, but here in chapter ten he takes a turn for the worse, admitting, "I loathe my life" (v. 1). Life, the most precious of gifts, the most beautiful and fragile and rarest of possessions, and yet Job loathes it.

What does it mean to loathe? Merriam-Webster defines loathing as great disklike; disgust. Job is disgusted with his own life. Why? You know the reasons. His children have died. His possessions have been plundered. His health has deteriorated to an excruciating degree. His wife told him to "Curse God and die" (Job 2:9). His friends, helpful at first, descend into jerk territory—accusing him of sin, suggesting his children deserved their fate, and proclaiming he should repent—all for want of a better theology.

Penniless, abandoned, bereaved, confused, accused, and afflicted, you can see why Job's life might disgust him. Earlier in the book he even said it would have been better if his mother had miscarried! That's some pretty dark stuff right there.

Have you ever loathed your life?

 
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When Even the Best Medicine Can't Cure You

"Every human heart carries the feeling of disquiet and of separation from its true home."¹

Nathan Dumlao

 

THIS WORLD OFFERS a taste of some of the most beautiful, exhilarating, and heartwarming phenomena. God's creation—intrinsically good—can leave one filled with awe at the sight of something as mundane as a sunset. The earth spins away from the sun once per day, yet still we marvel at its magnificence.

If you ask me, one of the best things about life is comedy. I love to laugh.

Most people do, of course, but why do we laugh? Why do we enjoy it?

What Makes You Feel Secure?

  A preview of January's email-only article.

Jaime Spaniol

IT IS TEMPTING to focus our energy and efforts on the material world, especially when it comes to security. We build stronger houses, install better locks, and design more intelligent surveillance systems.

These things are no inherently bad, but if we're not careful we can shift our focus from the the eternal to the temporary.

Every month I publish an exclusive article for my email subscribers, and this month we're looking at a verse from Proverbs 14 that will help provide some eternal prospective regarding the concept of security. If you'd like instant, free access, fill out the form below. (If you are already a subscriber, check your inbox!)

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While it's true Solomon may have borrowed or modified many proverbs from ancient sources, Proverbs 14:11 is nevertheless intriguing considering the context in which it was written. The verse reads, "The house of the wicked will be destroyed, but the tent of the upright will flourish."

The surface reading is pretty obvious: God honors upright living and disaster besets those who are wicked. And the implications are just as obvious: be good, not evil.

But beneath the surface level we can observe a few additional layers of meaning that help us better understand how to apply the verse to our lives.

One can see right off the contrast between the house of the wicked and the tent of the upright. One is sturdy, able to withstand storms, while the other is flimsy and subject to the elements. And yet the house is destroyed, not the tent.

What are we to make of such a phenomenon?

 
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What I Read in 2022: 3 Books You Might Also Enjoy

Three of my favorite books from 2022, plus I'm giving one of them away!

Update, 1/25/23: Congrats to Thomas from Spain on winning the book giveaway!

Siora Photography

I GOT AMBITOUS in September of 2021 and decided to pick up Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.

I remember my first exposure to the book. I was in high school and a I spied a guy a grade ahead of me buried in the novel. Although I didn't know him well, he had a reputation as a superior intellect.

I love reading, as you know, and I've always admired a good intellect, so seeing Atlas Shrugged in this high school senior's hands was reason enough to add the work to my mental to-be-read list. That was in 2001.

Twenty years later I had occasion to pick up Rand's magnum opus. I am in graduate school at the moment, and a scholarship opportunity arose involving the reading of and writing an essay about the book. Those interested received a complimentary copy of the book in a digital format.

Although I knew the book was long, the electronic format masked its true girth. The English Standard Version of the Bible contains 757,439 words.[1] Atlas Shrugged, in comparison, contains an estimated 645,000 words.[2]  Within a couple of weeks my coursework overtook most available free time for reading. But as the scholarship deadline came and passed me by, I found myself enthralled in Rand's book. So from September to May I read until I worked my way through the novel.

Alas, I cannot recommend Atlas Shrugged in my annual roundup of books I read. I had high hopes for the book, and the work was compelling much of the time. In the end, though, only strict adherents or new converts to Rand's objectivism philosophy will probably consider a book of such length worth the read. Although I resonate with much of Ayn's worldview, she makes zero allowance for either God or for charity of any kind. Additionally, portions of the book—the Galt speech, for example—are so long as to become repetitive.

I only bring up Atlas Shrugged as context for my year of reading; I spent almost half of the year finishing up the book. With that background established, here are three books I think you might enjoy.

No, Turning to God Isn't All Roses

 A preview of October's email-only article.

Pedro Vergara

TURNING TO JESUS means you'll be happy and prosperous the rest of your life, right?

Therefore, if you're unhappy or less than wealthy, it probably means you don't have enough faith.

You see where one can run into trouble with this line of thinking.

Every month I publish an exclusive article for my email subscribers, and this month we're talking about the reality of turning to God in the context of the book of Job. If you'd like instant, free access, fill out the form below. (If you are already a subscriber, check your inbox!)

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I've written it in numerous places, but once more for effect: bad things do happen to decent people all the time. The fall ushered in an era where entropy reigns supreme (for a time) so that even were sin not present, the pure randomness of lightning or gravity would still cause pain and suffering. 

Cast out of God's Edenic hedge, we no longer enjoy protections from the negative aspects of thermodynamics. In short, there's no escaping the heat death of the universe sans the intervention of the Almighty. Adam made humanity's bed, now we must lie in it.

 
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