"Man, you don't know pain!"

Audio (Sat. Eve): https://docs.google.com/a/stpius.net/file/d/0B1r8CMMH17Y0MGdpNjFvYnMzeUV6eVNUc2t2blJMNjRhV2lF/edit?usp=docslist_api

I feel like I have had a sheltered childhood.  I was part of a blessed family. Besides losing my maternal grandparents  around age 9, I never really knew much tragedy in my family.

No injuries that weren't fully healed and in the past, etc.

So it's hard to fully understand how Job is feeling in today's reading. I mean, this guy has the ultimate trump card for other people's complaints about what life has dealt them.  Can you imagine losing everyone you've ever loved, everything you've ever owned, and then to top it off your entire body is covered with boils from the worst sunburn imaginable? Job is te only one truly able to tell anyone: "man, you don't know pain - let me tell you about pain!"

However I've seen a whole lot of pain and felt others' pain pretty deeply.  In fact, I almost lost my 4 younger siblings all at one time. (Lake tree accident)

So the Job of my family is my little sister Kasey: Kasey has been through a lot. She was the one with the broken femur at age 4. We carried her around and used a wagon to get her around the house.  At age 8 or so, She broke her jaw and had her mouth wired shut. A little later Tommy broke her head open with a hockey stick. 

Kasey shows that pain doesn't need to overwhelm us and take over.

What do you do for people in times of pain? We have to stand with them through it. Pink and make us alone. We must fight against that!

Sometimes we think pain is the one thing in this life that doesn't make sense.  Like we can challenge God as Job does and say to Him: hey, you don't know what pain is like.  but he does. He does better than we do.