It’s been quite a week.  We’ve become somewhat numb over the years to the senseless violence that seems to regularly wash over our country in destructive waves.  But this week felt different.  A PCA church school was hit.  The school meets in the church building.  Six lives were lost.  While I didn’t know any of the victims, I do know four of the church’s six Pastors.  I know several of their Ruling Elders.  I posted a quick “Pray for Covenant School” picture on Facebook and it was shared over a thousand times.  The PCA Community is not a large one and this attack stunned many of us.  One of my former RTS students will be planning and leading one of the funerals in the near future.  So this one hit home.

How should Christians respond when tragedy strikes?  There are many ways to answer that question.  At first, we simply react to the pain.  We may weep, sob, pray, lament, wail, or fall into the arms of friends.  But as time passes, our minds emerge from the shock of traumatic loss and the fog of exhaustion, and we begin to search for answers — truths to which we can cling.  We need solid ground on which to stand and rebuild our lives, the foundations provided for us in God’s Word so that we may find comfort, strength, and hope.

And here we are in a sermon series on “A Man Called Job.”  As we’ve seen for the past two months, this is a book filled with suffering … and questioning … and lots of lament.  And this week will be no different.  We’ll be in Job 25-31, and Job will continue to defend himself, question God, and simply wonder at what’s going on in his life.  And right in the middle of these seven chapters, Job gives us one of the most thoughtful reflections on the need for wisdom when our world is collapsing around us. 

It’s a fitting topic for this week, a week of walking with God through pain and suffering.  A week beginning with Palm Sunday, moving to Good Friday, and pointing us to Easter.  A week in which we’ll come to the Lord’s Table, remembering the One who suffered and died for us.  A week in which we could use some wisdom.  And godly wisdom is something we all need.  See you Sunday, Dr. Dave