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      With our heads spinning, we ask with the psalmist, "What is man . . . ?" The psalmist doesn't give us all the answers, but he gives us enough to go on. He says we are made a little less than God, and that we are crowned with glory and honor. That means you and me. That puts us in our place—a wonderful place in relation to God. A part of what that means is in the question of the psalmist: "What is man that You are mindful of him?" The adjective mindful derives from the verb remember (zakar). Take heart: we are remembered by God. God knows who we are.

      LIFT UP YOUR HEART

      "What is man that you are mindful of him, / And the son of man that You visit him?" (NKJV). Visit here means "to attend to, to observe," so the NRSV has it "mortals that you care for them." Lift up your heart. Rise from any cowering back in self-disdain or self-depreciation. God has his eye on you. Even when we forget, he remembers. Even when we get lost and wander away, he keeps us in mind. He knows who we are.

      The prophet Isaiah kept reminding Israel that God would not forget the nation he had chosen to be an instrument of his redemption. As he preached to Israel, he sang a song of thanksgiving and praise.

      Surely God is my salvation;

      I will trust, and will not be afraid,

      for the LORD God is my strength and my might;

      he has become my salvation. (12:2)

      Isaiah was confident that there is no way for us to get beyond the scope of God's love.

      "The Lord of hosts is mustering an army for battle" (Isa. 13:4b). God always acts to redeem and rescue us. We can't outrun, out-give, outlast, or outgrow God's love. Out of the depth of that love, God delivered the people of God out of Egypt, moved an army to deliver the people of God from exile, and later would send the Son to rescue the world. The whole of Scripture captures God's great love affair with humanity. We may try to run and hide, but the arm of God's love for us is always long enough to reach and rescue us. (Wesley Study Bible, Life Application Topic: "Love of God," p. 830)

      The final answer to the question "What is man . . . ?" is answered in Jesus. In all sorts of ways he answers the question, but in one particular way he gives us the answer of who we are by telling us who God is. Jesus called God, "Abba, Father" (Mark 14:36). He taught us to pray, "Our Father . . ." (Matt. 6:9). Don't forget: we are God's children. God knows who we are.

      Loving God can even help us love one another more or even at all. Loving God and accepting God's grace with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength will restore us to a right relationship with God. And it will also help us love ourselves and other people.

      QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

      Do you really believe God is Abba, Father, and loves you? Who do you need to love more? Who do you need to remember in prayer? How will you praise God with your life today?

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      LIFE ISN'T FAIR, BUT LIFE ISN'T GOD

       JOB 7:1-19; ROMANS 8:31-39

      WHY IS THERE PAIN AND SUFFERING?

      An interesting twist of response to tragedy came years ago when United Airlines Flight 232 crashed in Sioux City, Iowa. Survivors attributed their survival to God. An organization of atheists, known as the Freedom from Religion Foundation, issued a call for secular newspapers to quit using "Bible Belt journalism." Ann Gaylor, leader of the group, said, "Every time a tragedy is reported our members must brace themselves for the inevitable. If there are survivors, reporters will make sure God will get the credit, but never the blame. Why don't they ask these religionists who claim God helped them why he let tragedies happen in the first place?" Referring to the United crash she asked, "Why didn't their omnipotent God just fix the hydraulic system of United Flight 232 and save everybody?" ("News Report's Mention of God Angers Atheists," Atlanta Constitution, August 12, 1989).

      This is the question of the book of Job. Why? Why do bad things happen to good people? More expansive than that, why is there pain and suffering in the world? Wrestling with the devastation of his life—his oxen, camels, and donkeys stolen and his servants killed; sheep and other servants burned up by fire from heaven; his sons and daughters destroyed by a storm—Job struggled with the why of it all. Early on in his tormented struggle he moaned,

      The arrows of the Almighty are in me;

      my spirit drinks their poison;

      the terrors of God are arrayed against me. . . .

      O that I might have my request . . .

      that it would please God to crush me . . .

      This would be my consolation;

      I would even exult in unrelenting pain;

      for I have not denied the words of the Holy One. (6:4, 8-10)

      In a kind of sneer, he turns a portion of Psalm 8 into a parody, accusing God of paying too much attention to him.

      What are human beings, that you make so much of them,

      that you set your mind on them,

      visit them every morning,

      test them every moment? (Job 7:17-18)

      Who would dare speak to God in this fashion? Only a person of faith. Job is a model for us. He is overwhelmed by his suffering. He doesn't understand it. He searches his soul to discover any sin of which he is unaware, then pleads with God that if there is any sin why doesn't God pardon, rather than pile suffering upon suffering.

      If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of humanity?

      Why have you made me your target? (7:20)

      Job is asking the same question most of us ask at one time or another: Why? The question will continue to haunt us, and we may never find a satisfactory answer to the expansive issue of evil and suffering in the world. We all know this: life isn't fair, but we need to keep reminding ourselves that life isn't God.

      GOD IS FOR US

      Honesty is essential in our relationship to life and to God. We must own who we are, the circumstances of our life, and keep a clear perspective about the character of God. We have what Job did not have—a clear revelation of God in Jesus Christ, which gives us the confidence of Paul that "in everything God works for good with those who love him" (Rom. 8:28 RSV).

      Paul asks a number of questions in this Romans passage. Two of them, in particular, give us perspective. One, "If God is for us, who is against us?" (v. 31b). Paul doesn't want his readers to miss the powerful affirmation he is giving through the question, so he uses an allusion from sacred history that would immediately grab the attention of his Jewish audience. "He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?" (v. 32).

      Think of the greatest example you know of a person's loyalty to God. Think of Abraham, Paul is saying. God's love and loyalty to us is like that. Just as Abraham was so faithful and trustful to God—willing to sacrifice his only son for God—God is so loving and faithful that he sacrificed his only Son. If a God like that is for us, who can be against us?

      The second question, "Who will separate us from the love of Christ?" (v. 35). For the question to burrow its way into our minds, Paul names those things that threaten us: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness— all the perils of human life; included in that for us would be heart attack, stroke, cancer, surgery, war, tornadoes, earthquakes. Can these separate us from the love of Christ? Paul shouts his answer: "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us" (v. 37).

      Life isn't fair, but life isn't all there is. In all the "whys" of life, we can be more than conquerors. We appropriate that truth by using our circumstances, whether pain and suffering or affirmation and joy, to more consciously claim the love of Christ.

      QUESTIONS

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