Morning Prayer: Reflection on Adversity

 



From Morning Prayer: “We accept good things from God, and should we not accept evil?” - Job 2:10

1. What Job is actually saying

Job is not shrugging. He is not being passive. He is not saying suffering is “fine.”

He is naming a truth that most of us would rather avoid:

If we only trust God when life is pleasant, then we don’t trust God — we trust the pleasantness.

Job is refusing to build a conditional relationship with God. He is saying: My faith is not a transaction. My faith is a posture.

2. Why this line stings us

Because we want a moral universe that behaves. We want good people to prosper and bad people to get their cosmic comeuppance. We want fairness, symmetry, predictability.

But Job is living in the gap between:

  • the God we believe in, and

  • the world we actually experience.

And that gap is where faith either collapses or deepens.

3. Why God allows good things to happen to bad people

Job never gets a tidy answer — and that’s the point.

Scripture consistently shows that:

  • God’s patience is not approval.

  • God’s mercy is not moral indifference.

  • God’s timing is not our timing.

Sometimes the wicked prosper because God is giving them time to turn. Sometimes because human freedom has real consequences. Sometimes because the world is still unfinished, still groaning, still being redeemed.

But never because God is unjust.

4. The deeper question: How should good people respond?

Job’s line is not about evil people at all. It’s about us — the ones trying to walk with God when the world feels crooked.

Job teaches three things:

  • Humility — We don’t see the whole picture.

  • Steadfastness — We don’t abandon God when the script changes.

  • Integrity — We don’t let suffering turn us into something smaller, harder, or meaner.

To “accept” evil does not mean to approve of it. It means we refuse to let suffering sever the relationship.

It means: I will not worship the gifts. I will worship the Giver.

5. The morning prayer posture

When we pray this line in the morning, we are not resigning ourselves to fate. We are anchoring ourselves in a truth that frees us:

  • God is God even when life is not good.

  • God is present even when circumstances are not.

  • God is faithful even when the world feels faithless.

And we are asking for the grace to respond like Job:

Not with bitterness, not with entitlement, but with a heart that stays turned toward God — in the sunshine and in the storm.



Note about Morning Prayer: Each morning prayer post reflects on one phrase from the Morning Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours. which can be found in the iBreviary (a downloadable app), Universalis (website) or Divine Office (publication and website).

post production may be assisted by AI in image generation and content (research and wording)


Read more Morning Prayer posts.

Morning Prayer posts inspired by Being Catholic in Troubled Times (Dennis Ortman)


Book Description:

These are times that try our souls. This book is addressed to all, not just Catholics, who search for deeper meaning in tough times. Our age is marked by division and alienation. We long for some message that will bring peace to our world and our hearts.

This book suggests that the Catholic faith can provide strength in these troubled times. The word "catholic" means "all-embracing, universal." Nothing is excluded in the catholic mind. The truth that sets us free can be found everywhere, especially in unexpected places. It is often hidden in plain sight. In our darkest moments, we find new light and life. When we are most despairing, a ray of hope shines through.



Dr. Dennis Ortman, former priest and current psychologist, is the author of Anger Anonymous, Anxiety Anonymous, Depression Anonymous, Being Catholic in Troubled Times, and Life, Liberty, and COVID-19.


For more posts by and about Dennis and his award-winning books, click HERE.



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