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11/26/2003 Entry: "Feasting"

One of the things I enjoy most about my work as a minister, and as a student chaplain in particular, is its complete unpredictability. Sometimes its a downer of course, but I do quite like the neverquiteknowingwhatsnextness of it. Take today for example. There was I, sandwiches in one hand and a bag of crisps in the other, settling down for a spot of luncheon in the student coffee lounge. I had no expectation of a "deep and meaningful", just a cheery chat over a cup of coffee. I'd gone into the chaplaincy straight from a business meeting at one of the churches, so I wouldn't have objected to something fairly restful.

But then one of the students (who was obviously reading her Bible) looks up and says, "Do you know anything about the Book of Job?") The conversation that followed was for me an exciting impromptu Bible study of Job 12-14. Truthfully, it's been a little while since I studied the book in any depth and the conversation made me realise I need to go back and study it again. The central question -- why does bad stuff happen to the good folk? -- is not one that's going away any time soon. Job offers some important signposts in the exploration of that question and if we really listen to Job we might find that the answers we give to it might be a bit less trite and insensitive than they often seem.But it wasn't just the specific subject that excited me. It was just good to open the Bible with a fellow believer without any planning or preparation, and wrestle with the word. I'm not sure what the student made of it, but for me it was a feast more sustaining than the sandwiches I had with it.