easy answers

We have been reading through the Bible this year. And now - this Sunday the book that I will preach on is Job.
I have been preparing for Bible study and reading ahead for the sermon on Sunday. And it seems that Job is about no easy answers in the face of suffering. And I read this and recognize how much I like the easy answers.
In the life of the church I watch people struggle with issues of aging and all the physical and mental deterioration that comes with that. We see people trying to recover from strokes. And then there are the relationship problems that are part of life, the genetic predispositions to certain behaviors. People with addicitons, ADD, OCD, perfectionism. All kinds of ways in which we struggle and suffer and the people around us struggle and suffer.

And I want - and frequently give - easy answers. About lessons in the midst of it. How it strengthens us. God is with us.

Last night in our book group we discussed A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving. Owen Meany knew that he was an instrument of God and he seemed to know that God was going to use him and what would happen to him. There was this wisdom and serenity in the face of it.
And that led us in our discussion to the nature of "call" in our lives. And literally everyone of us could talk about some element of their lives in which they experienced a "call" - to an certain exercise, to a career, to volunteer in a particular place. There are easy
answers to me in those positive experiences in our lives.

It is in the negative - the suffering - that the answers aren't so easy. I get so irrituated when I hear others give easy answers - patitudes about God's will and God only gives you what you can handle. At the same time - my faith gives me my own answers which generally come down to presence of God in the suffering and the trust that somehow God will use this later in ways that I cannot imagine. And God' s soveriegnty and mystery.

However, I am not Job. I have been tested some in life - but I have not personally experienced
the kind of suffering that I see in this world. Would these "answers" be enough?
I don't know.