“His wife said to him, ‘Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!’”
Job 2:9 (NIV)

Listen to You’ll Never Take Me Alive, Copper!

A few days ago this article appeared in our local paper.

“Three hours after a college fraternity president left his frat house, police shot him to death on the side of an interstate. Police said that student called 911 before dawn Sunday and said he was suicidal. Authorities are calling the incident another case of “suicide-by-police.”

I read the story and wondered; What makes a man desire death over life? Is it the endless physical pain, darkness of depression, or a sharp and inspired mind trapped in a body that is slowly withering away? When do we reach our breaking point and cry out, “O, God. Enough already. Take me now!”

When Job’s wife saw his suffering, when she witnessed the puss oozing from his open sores and heard the rattle of his moans escaping from his parched throat, she placed a virtual gun in his hand. “Curse God and die! Do you think He cares what happens to you? He does not.”

Ah, but God does care. He cares how you live and how you die. He exchanged the life of His son for yours, breathed life into the first man Adam and desires that none should be lost to sin and death. He’s carried you since birth, knows the number of hairs on your head, the secret thoughts of your heart. He has marked your days on earth.

When Christ died He refused the easy course. He declined the narcotics choosing instead to feel life to the very end, even the suffering of death.

I do not pretend to know God’s purpose for our suffering but I know this. We can never cling too tightly to life. Curse God and die? No, praise God and weep for squandering even a second of the life we have.