I heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; Job 42:5
If you can keep your head when all about you
are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
but make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated don’t give way to hating,
and yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
With these words, British Nobel Laureate Rudyard Kipling begins his classic poem “If,” written in 1895 and first published in 1910. The poem is in the form of paternal advice to the poet’s son, John. Joni Mitchell put the poem to music in her 2007 album Shine. I first came across “If” during an annual Christmas Eve poetry reading at a member’s home from the first church I served in Belleville.
When I shared how touched I was by the poem with my boss and mentor at the time, the Rev. Dr. Fred Cornell, he was delighted. “If” was a favorite poem of his mother’s, who framed and hung it in his bedroom, greeting him each morning growing up. When our son Paul was born, Peter and I decided we wanted “If” to greet him each morning and to continue the tradition we learned from the man who officiated at our wedding and for whom we had a great respect and admiration.
Dr. Cornell was a man, not unlike Job, who was acquainted with grief after the deaths of his son and his wife, who persisted in integrity, and who was an agent for change. Fred walked for justice alongside many Presbyterian ministers in the 1965 Voting Rights March in Selma, Ala. Fred’s progressive view of women in ministry and his advocacy for me strengthened our bond. One of the reasons Peter and I chose the name “Paul” for our son was to honor the memory of Fred and Audrey’s son, Paul Cornell, who died tragically of a brain aneurism the summer following his graduation from law school just after he passed the Illinois Bar. Befittingly, our son Paul would decide to pursue a career in law.
There is a strength within the character of Job that resonates with Kipling’s poem “If.” Job is resolute and persistent with a voice that cries out, even when others seek to blame him. The voices of others cannot mute his cry to be acknowledged by his creator in the midst of suffering. Job is rewarded for his persistence with an “eye that sees God.”
Job refuses to accept the status quo of those who presume to speak on behalf of God. In the midst of his struggle, Job holds fast to God and clings to his dignity as a human being. Because of Job’s persistence, God enters a dialogue with Job which affirms who God is and reminds Job of his humanity. Job is transformed in the presence of God. With wonder, awe and gratitude. Job proclaims I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.
In the past, Job knew God from the instructions of others, from his family and from his faith community. Now Job meets God in his own life, in the thick of the storm that is his life. Job speaks of a firsthand experience and personal meeting with God and a kind of seeing that surpasses known speech about God. Face to face with his loving Creator, Job yields himself and finds comfort in the dust and ashes of his humanity. Then, Job gets up from his ash heap of loss and sorrow to get on with his life.
Job’s deepened experience of God summons him to new ways of seeing, leads him outside of himself, and creates in him a new being within his community: a community that no longer judges Job or tells him to be quiet, a community that eats bread with Job, and a community that shows him sympathy and comfort and takes an offering on his behalf.
May God grant each of us the resilience and inner strength of Job. May we trust ourselves when others doubt us, choose love when others hate us, and, yet, neither “look too good nor talk too wise.” May we walk with reverence for life, vision for change, and gratitude for the grace and mercy we have received by the hand of God.
This article appears in Best Of Springfield 2024.
