While Job’s poetry paints a vivid picture for us of the pain and sorrow that he has experienced in his life, some of us may find ourselves echoing his words or at least wanting to cry out for ourselves, “God, I’ve been through enough!” as we reflect on the events of the past year.  No doubt that in some form or fashion, we have all wanted to just dump our sorrow, our hurt, our anguish, our confusion, our losses, our sicknesses, and our pain on a set of scales and say, “God, this is too much.  Isn’t this enough already?  Please no more.  I’m tired of the injustices.  I’m sick of the pandemic.  I’m grieving over losing a loved one.  I’m lonely because I miss gathering with my friends.  I feel cheated because I couldn’t celebrate my family traditions throughout Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years.  God, I’ve been through enough!”

     Growing up, I remember well-meaning people always saying the Bible says, “God will never put more on you than you can handle.”  I also remember that they never cited a book, chapter, and verse.  I figure that is because that phrase is not in the scriptures.  But what is in the scriptures is the promise that God will never leave us or forsake us.  God does promise to always go with us.  If we stop and consider every person that God ever called in the Bible, they were never promised that they wouldn’t be overwhelmed by the task, or that it would not be difficult or painful.  But when they questioned God about their call, God’s response was “I will go with you.”  The promise was “My grace is sufficient”.  Today, if we find ourselves crying, “God, I’ve been through enough” know that God’s response is that God will go with us, and with God, we will have enough.