Lest we begin with a misunderstanding, this is not about employment. The Job in the title is pronounced “jobe” and is in reference to what many scholars believe is the earliest piece of writing in the Judeo-Christian scriptures.

Lets start, then, with a given: Life is hard. Suffering is one of its major features. Everyone suffers. Physical suffering. Mental suffering. Spiritual suffering. Oh, some of us, especially in the affluent west, try to mitigate suffering with all sorts of distractions. We live in such opulence, taking for granted things like running water, heat and air conditioning, sewage systems, availability of food and housing and so on … that not all that long ago would have been incredible luxuries or even unimaginable. But, nothing can prevent suffering, try as we might.

Many of us are fortunate enough to experience various spans of time where true suffering is less or even not in evidence. Of course, many of us also experience moments of happiness or even joy, things that are able to set aside the other things that cause us to suffer. But, those don’t last, at least in the sense that they prevent the inevitable.

Now, there is suffering and then there is suffering. I felt the call to write about this now although it’s not a new topic for these pages, of course.

We’ve all been there. Or, if someone hasn’t, then you will be there. One shoe drops. Then the other. Then you find you have more than two feet because the shoes keep dropping. It’s like, “What’s up? That, too?! I was just beginning to deal with that thing when all of a sudden there’s another thing … and then another and then another.”

We know the kindest people. I mean, really. I shake my head in wonder at how many kind people we know. I bring this up here in the context that Diane and I have both had some physical set backs recently. I had that fall some two months ago, resulting in a badly fractured rib and punctured and partially collapsed lung. Almost worse than that was the news that I would have some annoying restrictions on travel and activity. Wah!

Then, about a month later, Diane fell and has badly fractured bones in her right wrist that required surgery. Double wah! Oh, and about that time, we discovered a plumbing problem in our kitchen sink, one of our dogs was sick again and the Jeep started making funny noises. Can anyone out there identify?

In fact, these things are really just annoyances (the dog’s deal was temporary) and we both kind of refer to them as “first world problems” (as opposed to the “third world” where maybe hunger, disease and violence are more common). We are immensely grateful that we have excellent medical care, a beautiful home, food in the fridge and pantry, a veterinarian close by and, as I just said, an amazing network of kind and loving friends and family, wanting and able to pitch in in a heartbeat to help.

This is not Job material. About that …

The biblical Job was a man in the ancient mideast who seemingly had everything. Wealth, health, status, great family and all of that. Suddenly, things began falling apart. And, I mean everything. It was a cascade of terrible stuff. He was an honorable man with tremendous integrity but it appeared to everyone who knew him at the time that he must have really ticked off God because he really lost almost everything. His family started dying. His own health deteriorated rapidly. He lost much of his material wealth. People couldn’t believe how much he suffered. There’s an incredible backstory to this but suffice to say that his faith did not waiver amidst the most severe of life’s trials.

As I’ve written before, Diane and I are close to people who face daily challenges that make our current predicaments qualify as minor distractions at best. Hopefully, the last thing you’ll hear from either one of us is a real complaint, other than the off-handed and slightly self-deprecating, “Really? I can’t go to the mountains for three whole months!? Come on.” Such expressions are made with the full knowledge that a disruption like that is of no real consequence. No, on the spectrum of stuff, our current challenges don’t rightfully register on the scale. And, did I mention that we’ve had family, friends and resources in abundance to help us get through this patch?

I said above that there were a couple of reasons why I felt compelled to write about this. The second is a book I picked up after reading about it from a columnist I respect. It’s entitled, Dreamland, and is a very detailed study on the origins and impact of the opioid epidemic that is devastating large tracts of our society. I am not unaware of this crisis, having followed it both in the news and up close and personal as a high school principal. But, I have to say, this book is both extremely well researched and written and I am gaining much deeper insights into the nature of the entire issue. It is phenomenal on so many levels, one of which is helping me to further wrap my head around why so many people, many of whom come from middle class or affluent communities, become addicted and die at unprecedented rates. Another is the fact that we are very close to dear friends who each have a single child in their mid to late 20s who have become addicted and are suffering the tragic consequences. These are not abstractions but real cases, right here in Rancho Bernardo with two sets of the most loving parents.

One of the things I really learned with this book that punctuates what I already know is that, as a society, something has really shifted in the last several decades. And, that is the fact that many people now believe that “freedom from pain” is a fundamental right, sort of like people believe that happiness is a fundamental right. Of course, these two are related. It’s hard to be happy when in pain so the “system” needs to operate to ensure that these rights are protected and supported. Dreamland dissects this, providing all of the detailed history of opiates, their manufacture and distribution, both legal and illegal. It’s unbelievably sobering, to say the least. As I read it, my emotions ranged from anger to incredulity to overwhelming sympathy to a sense of loss and a more developed understanding of the nature of despair. While some of this may not reach Job status on an individual basis, I know that some does.

I have said it before and I say it again. We do not have a fundamental right to happiness and to the degree that we believe that is a degree to which we are seriously deluded. We also have no fundamental right to be free of pain. Suffering and pain are intractable features of human existence. No condition, no drug, will reverse that in a way that we can still call ourselves fully human. We all seek happiness and relief from pain and there is nothing inherently wrong with either. But they should not be primary pursuits and it is obvious what happens when they do become that.

So, what constitutes Job material? Well, I guess that means asking the question, “What do we most fear to lose?” No, I’ll amend that. “What many things would we have to lose that should realistically paralyze us with grief and cause us abject despair?” Certainly, the situation Diane and I have been in recently doesn’t qualify as a blip on that radar. Painful? Yes. Annoying? Definitely.

But, here is what’s true. Grace and blessings can flow from the most challenging of circumstances. We see it each week and are grateful for that awareness.

I don’t go many days without realizing that my lungs are now able to get a full breath on a regular basis. What is common for most people has never been available for me until four or five years ago. I get the most unbelievable, albeit brief, sensation when those moments of focus come. It’s like, “wow, that’s amazing. This is what life is like when breathing normally works!” I think that this is a microcosm of my approach to life now and also to the lives of others I know. Full breaths, one of the simplest yet most crucial of all mechanisms, are seen as gifts, things to be treasured. What if we paused to reflect on what that means in a broader sense? Each day, what are the things we take for granted that bring beauty into the landscape of our existence? What if we shifted our vision away from constantly seeking happiness or the abolition of pain by any means, towards recognizing the joys that are really quite within reach?

We have different friends who we know have to struggle to put one foot in front of the other as they meet each day. They carry a heavy weight of suffering, whether it is physical or emotional. They have a right to relate to Job. Is faith, for them, a panacea? Yes. Is it wish-fulfillment as many would characterize it, a kind of escape mechanism to dull the pain and offer some shred of happiness? Perhaps, but what if that wish is actually really just the voice of Hope ringing through the darkness?

There are two things, in my mind, that fuel the drive to keep on going when things are falling apart. One is the knowledge that God loves me/us without condition and that his love is more powerful than any earthly force or circumstance. The second is the belief that this is temporary … a fraction of a moment in time and that I am an eternal being. As hard as it is to muster up the recognition: This, too, shall pass.

We are all passengers on this journey. How we choose to occupy ourselves as such is the big question. The belief that either happiness or pain relief are due me in large measure as fundamental rights is only a distraction from a thing that is much more transcendentally true. Yes, we can escape from suffering but not in this lifetime. In the meantime we can learn from Job: No matter what, trust God.