If it is true that I have gone astray, my error remains my concern alone. – Job 19:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 30, 2012): Job 19

In the mid 1970’s, Bachman Turner Overdrive released their hit song “Looking Out for Number One.” It was a song that caused a little bit of a stir in my family. Then I was a teenager and there was a continuing discussion in my family over the music that I listened to. So, it was my job to present the bands that I wanted to listen to in the best possible light. And for a long time BTO had been fairly easy to promote. They always seemed to place themselves in a light that my parents could understand – until they released “Looking Out for Number One.”

The problem was that the song reflected a selfish outlook on life. The message was that my main emphasis should be on me – my success and my dreams. And, while I do hear that inside the church, it has never been a Christian belief. Repeatedly we are taught and we believe in the importance of the “other.”  It is one of the mantras of the Bible, that we were created for community.

In our society, we place so much emphasis on the individual that I think we often forget how interconnected we really are. We have been taught that our success belongs solely to us, even though thousands of people fail miserably at the task of being successful through no real fault of their own. And we believe that our failure is only ours, even though we see the pain caused to people around us every day because we have messed up.

And Job falls into the same trap that we do. His assertion is that if he is wrong (and he really doesn’t believe that he is) his error isn’t hurting anyone else. His sin is private and it is his concern alone. He is the only one that is suffering the pain of his sin and so his friends should mind their own business.

It is something that we try to convince ourselves of – that my error and my sin only hurt me. We even have a category of offenses that we like to pretend are victimless. But the truth is something a little different. Our sin affects everyone. For Job, his pain is affecting his friends as they try to figure out the reasons why. Jobs struggle, and his error, has become a teaching time - not just for Job, but for his group of friends as well.

The ugly truth that I have to come to terms with is that my sin is never just my sin – my sin and my error has an effect on the community that gathers around me. There is no such thing as a private concern. And all of our struggles are also a teaching time that God can use, not just for us, but for the community around us. And I know that idea scares us, but it is part of the community of which we are a part – and the encouragement that we can provide for each other.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 20