August 22: Of Eliphaz the Temanite and Sheldon Cooper

1 Job 4:1-7:21

1 Corinthians 14:18-40

Psalm 37:30-40

Proverbs 21:27

I am a huge fan of "The Big Bang Theory", a recently-concluded TV series about (funny enough for this day and age) stereotypes: a pretty, somewhat intellectually challenged blonde lady moves into an apartment across the hall from two uber-nerd Ph.D's doing research at CalTech.   

The show's main protagonist s the biggest, quirkiest nerd of the cast - Sheldon Cooper.  Sheldon demonstrates how it is possible to be so absolutely right and so completely wrong at the same time. He is factually correct almost 100% of the time - but almost as often he is emotionally, empathetically clueless.

That isn't just true for uber-nerds like Sheldon.  Normal people can be like that - as Eliphaz, Job's friend, demonstrates in today's reading.  Eliphaz is correct - man cannot be more righteous than God.  And yes, those whom God chooses to correct ARE blessed.  And of course God's hands will heal, and He will rescue us.

But nowhere in today's reading does Eliphaz acknowledge the anguish Job is feeling.  Nowhere does he offer the comfort a friend is uniquely positioned to give. And because he does not, the words he speaks, while correct, have little value to Job, do nothing to help ease his pain.  Had Job been more distant from God, Eliphaz's words would have done little to bring him closer; the absence of any action demonstrating any sense of empathy might have driven him further away.  

Contrast this with what happened at Lazarus's death and resurrection, in the context of something my dad has been trying to teach me: "They don't care that you know until they know that you care." Because "Jesus wept", they knew He cared…and so when He asked them to roll away the stone, they cared to see what He knew - and they did.  

Letting people know that we care - something that Sheldon Cooper, that Elphaz the Temanite, and that I could learn and apply so much better.  Father, when You choose for friends to have to struggle through hardship and tragedy, help us to remember that, in those circumstances, it is the empathy and the presence that helps so much more, that more effectively points them to you, than correct doctrine and right prescription.  Teach us to lead and to love, not with our minds, but with our hearts.