When the dark clouds roll in, that is when people of real faith continue to honor God. When it must meet some significant test, that is when trust means the most. The value of faith doesn’t become obvious until there is some doubt to be dealt with.
In the grip of intense suffering, Job found that the help of his best-intentioned friends only made the pain more perplexing. The lessons to be learned during God’s silence could only be learned in solitude. For a while, Job had to be left alone.
Until we despair concerning our own “gods, the work of men’s hands,” we are hardly ready to appreciate the true God. If we’re not willing to let go of the created things we’ve been clinging to, we’re not ready to receive what the Creator has for us.
From the Greek for “lawlessness,” “anomie” has come into popular usage as a description of the “alienation” felt by individuals when they sense that the structures of society are collapsing. It’s that sickening feeling that the world is coming apart.