Permission for Weariness--March 17, 2022

Permission for Weariness--March 17, 2022

"Indeed we call blessed those who showed endurance.  You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful." [James 5:11]

Let me say this as clearly as I know how to:  it is okay to be weary.  

It is okay to be upset at the struggles you are going through.  It is ok to be teary-eyed or worn down or frustrated or feeling burned-out from what has been put on your plate to deal with.  It is ok, not only to feel exhausted, but to say so.  It is ok to be done with the old stiff-upper-lip, poker-face kind of pretend toughness that never lets anyone see you bleed.  It is ok to be wearing thin and threadbare, and to feel like you can't keep going.  All of that is part of life, because life itself is difficult.  You know the line from The Princess Bride:  "Life is pain, your highness--and anyone who says different is selling something."  

So if you are feeling worn down yourself--from, oh, I don't know, maybe a worldwide pandemic that made your work life harder and your routines more complicated and your relationships more strained, and your bank account smaller--it is good and honest to be able to say so.  It's not a sign of weakness to say it out loud when you are feeling short on stamina and are tired of keeping on with keeping on; it's a sign that you are brave enough to tell the truth.

That is especially true when you consider that our older brother James here gives us another example of "endurance" in the biblical figure of Job.  Much like we saw yesterday with the example of "the prophets," Job is a complex figure when it comes to "endurance" or "patience."  Like so many of the prophets, Job suffered a lot.  But also like the prophets, he doesn't keep quiet about it.  The entire book of Job centers on Job complaining--both to God and to Respectable Religious People who are supposedly his friends--about how unfair it is that he should be suffering so much when he has been a good and decent human being.  When his friends insist that he must have sinned, or done some wicked thing, or offended God, as the reason for his suffering, Job maintains his innocence.  He refuses to curse God, although he surely calls on God to answer for what is happening.  And while he does endure deep loss, he doesn't keep quiet about any of it, even when it means yelling at his friends that their religious cliches are not helping.

All of this is to say that if we are going to hear James rightly, especially when he invokes a story like Job's, we can't use this verse to silence people who are suffering or police how someone feels in the midst of their struggles.  Sometimes that's how passages like this get used--as sort of a Biblical "back-up" for a lecture about how people need to "quit complaining" or "toughen up" or "walk it off" or "just grin and bear it" when terrible things happen.  You know, too, I'm sure, how tempting it can be to use that same train of thought against anybody whose opinion you don't like.  "Oh, look at what THEY'RE complaining about now!  What a bunch of whiners--they should have to toughen up and get over it like I do in my life!"  Or, "THOSE people are protesting something that I don't find important--they need to just go stay quiet and learn endurance... you know, like Job!"  The trouble is, James doesn't say we have to be quiet about the wrongs we bear in life, or to pretend we like them.  The very case-studies James has given us--from Job today to the prophets yesterday--are precisely examples of people who protested, argued, lamented, and vented their heartaches while they endured them.

So if you are in that place today, if you are feeling beaten down and tired, if you are worried how you are going to keep on going, hear it from the pen of James for you and me today: enduring doesn't mean pretending things are fine.  Enduring doesn't mean I confuse spiritual faith with stoic fakery.  Enduring doesn't mean I have to "get over it" or "toughen up" when my body is weary and my soul is just plain worn out.  Endurance allows for lament and protest--and then, we continue the work to heal where we and others are hurting, knowing that the God who heard all of Job's complaints hears ours as well.  Yes, have endurance, dear ones--the kind that can keep on relying on God because we know God can take whatever angry words we need to throw at heaven, and the kind that can keep hearing comfort from God as well when we have nothing but tears. 

And yes, as the old poet says, it is a commendable thing to be able to "fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds' worth of distance run." But at the point where these legs of mine give out, or this heart of mine fails, I trust that far more important than my endurance in the race is God's enduring promise to carry me. 

And that is enough.

Lord God, enable us to endure whatever challenges this day brings--with honesty, with courage, and with faith.