I just submitted the manuscript of my book to my publishers. And while I am thrilled the manuscript is completed, I can’t help but think how it’s topic and the timing are providential.

The book, tentatively entitled, when grief descends, focuses on The Book of Job and what it can teach us about entering into suffering and how to become consoling companions.
In order to write my book, it necessitated spending considerable time with Job. As I entered into this challenging book of the Bible, I stepped into Job’s narrative of loss and grief. I sat with him on the ash heap outside of the city gates. I provided a quiet witness to his sorrow, as he grieved the sudden loss of his ten children, his vast estate, his job, his health, his reputation, purpose, social connections, and the future as he had envisioned it. I walked alongside him as he lamented and stumbled his way through his overwhelming grief. I eavesdropped in on his conversations with his companions. Listened to the companions’ attempts to comfort him, as they struggled to find answers for why Job had to face such adversity and find God in his suffering.
The body of the narrative focuses on the conversations that occurred between Job and his companions. Discussions that revolved around why Job, a righteous man, had to face such horrific losses, and why their good God would allow a good man to suffer.
They held onto a reward and retribution theology, where they believed God, the just Judge, rewards good people and punishes the bad or wicked people. Yet, their theology did not fit Job’s story of loss. He was clearly a good man, yet he was suffering. This could mean either one of two things. One, Job had actually sinned in some way and God was justly punishing him for it. Or two, despite Job being a good man, he was suffering for some inexplicable, unknown reason. If they considered the latter choice, it meant that they would have to re-examine and refine their theology of suffering and their view of God.
The companions refused to reconsider their theology. As a result, they attempted to squeeze Job’s circumstances into their rigid theological beliefs. They lectured and criticized Job. They insisted he admit and confess his sin so that God would forgive him and restore his prosperity. Their misguided efforts caused them to ignore Job’s story of loss and to minimize his grief. This of course, merely intensified Job’s pain. Instead of being consoling, they became miserable comforters and worthless physicians.
Throughout the conversations, Job lamented and grieved and cried out to God. He knew he was innocent. He knew he did not deserve such punishment. He was confused. He was in agony. He searched for answers. There were moments he accused God of abandoning him or wanting to destroy him. Other moments, he lamented that the pain was so great it might be better if he had not been born, for then he would not have to experience such torment. Yet, at other moments he affirmed he was certain God was trustworthy, there might be a mediator to act on his behalf with God, and there might be healing after his grief, life after death, light after the darkness. Job experienced a broad range and depth of feelings; fluctuations of rage, despair, sorrow, doubt, uncertainty, fear, hope, confusion, uncertainty, wonder. All adding up to one tangled, messy, confusing mass of emotions.
As I sat with Job, and witnessed his turbulent, wild grief reactions, I realized a timeless, cross-cultural truth. That whenever humans face loss, of any magnitude, they will also experience such turbulence. Just like we are today.
In our loss and grief, we too will rage. Cry out. Lament. Wonder. Question. Accept. Resign. Doubt. Assess. Retreat and then barge ahead. Re-assess and process. We will continue to wrestle with what we believe to be true about God and his role in our suffering. Eventually, over time and with intention, we will walk out of our loss and grief into a new orientation and a new theology of suffering.
But while suffering will always be a universal, timeless human experience, it is also true that there is no one set framework or pathway through our grief. Grief is not a complete, linear process. It is complex. It will cycle and loop back and forth and around. We will feel one emotion one moment, and the next moment we may feel something quite different. It can be lonely and isolating. And because grief work is always hard and grinding, at moments we will feel overwhelmed and exhausted.
In the epilogue of Job’s narrative, God finally enters into their conversations. He begins by questioning and challenging Job. God asks Job where he was when God formed the earth, created the heavens, separated the land and the water, and carefully crafted all life forms. He asks Job where he is when he manages all the daily details, of all creation. God does not really expect Job to answer all the questions he poses, but he asks them to get Job, the reader, and those who are willing to sit with Job on the ash heap of suffering, to reflect on the big things. To contemplate. To wonder, to process and to work out what we believe to be true about the nature of God, his role in our loss and grief, and how he expects us to walk through our own grief and to comfort each other in our sorrows.
God’s speeches are exquisitely crafted. They provide a glimpse of our majestic, powerful heavenly Father. A God who is wildly imaginative and who loves everything he creates. At the same time, he does not feel answerable to the mere mortal about why he creates and does things the way he does. Thus, he remains incomprehensible and mysterious.
However, God does allow us to catch sight of how deeply invested he is in his creation, how he lovingly manages every minute detail and how he remains ever-present in every one of our stories.
During this unprecedented, uncertain time I have particularly held Job’s narrative close. And I hold tight to all that Job has taught me. He showed me how to search for God in my suffering. How to lament, cry out, express all of my grief and heartache to God. How to invite God into my story. How to listen for God, and to God. To wait patiently on his timing. To trust in his plans and purposes, in his provision and protection. Remaining confident that he tenderly holds our grief and profoundly feels our sorrow.
Job’s narrative re-affirmed for me how we can best provide comfort to one another as we grieve. To lean into suffering and gently enter in. To be present. To provide witness. To create safe and accepting spaces for grieving freely, each in our own unique way and timing. Making no judgments. Having no agendas. Being willing to sit quietly, together, in the ash heaps of our lives. Inviting, encouraging, supporting each other as our various narratives of loss and grief are unfolding and currently being written.
I personally draw great comfort from knowing that while God never directly answered Job questions about why he had to suffer, he does provide Job, and us, an answer. Job helped me to understand that while much of life will remain a mystery, we can find certainty in our mighty Creator. For he is never caught off guard or surprised by a turn of events. Nothing is a mystery to God. He knows all the answers. He knows how the pages of our life will turn, and how our stories will unfold.
So, today I hold onto Job’s narrative of loss and grief and draw on what it has taught me. I rest in the glimpses of God’s love of and for creation, and I feel comforted. I am okay with the mystery and the not knowing, but only because I know and trust the One who holds it. The Someone who tenderly cradles us in the palms of his compassionate hands, as we navigate our way forward, and through this challenging time.

Melissa HendersonApril 1, 2020 10:44 am
Looking forward to reading your book. 🙂
Anne Mackie MorelliApril 1, 2020 10:54 am
Thank you Melissa! I will keep you posted when it is published sometime in June!
Emily GalvanApril 1, 2020 2:13 pm
Beautiful and encouraging! I’m looking forward to reading your book but I appreciate you sharing these thoughts on the connection between Job’s circumstances and the situation we currently find ourselves in. There’s a lot to be gleaned from how Job responded to his suffering!
Anne Mackie MorelliApril 1, 2020 3:32 pm
Emily, thank you so much for visiting The Stones Call! Thank you for your encouraging comments and interest in the book. Yes, the Book of Job is rich and has so much to teach us, but we so often steer clear of it because it deals with hard topics of suffering and the theology of suffering. But if we can wade into it and sit with Job, we walk away better prepared to deal with our own loss and grief. Take care and thanks again for visiting and commenting!
Yvonne MorganApril 2, 2020 6:40 am
First, congratulations on the upcoming book.
Your blog ( and book) are so helpful during this time of crisis as so many try to understand the purpose of the suffering. You explain it all so well. God is not surprised and is still on the throne. Amen
Anne Mackie MorelliApril 2, 2020 11:35 am
Yvonne, blessings to you and your family during this unsettled time. I pray you are all doing well. Thank you for your encouraging comments. I really do pray that my words provide hope and comfort to others. And that they help people to process all the loss and grief we are facing during this challenging time. Take care and stay well.
Stephen LewisApril 2, 2020 7:50 am
Exciting News about your book! Sounds like it is going to be a “Must Read” hope you will keep us posted on when it comes out. God Bless and Be Safe Out There.
Anne Mackie MorelliApril 2, 2020 11:33 am
Stephen, thank you for visiting The Stones Call and for your encouraging comments! I will definitely keep you posted about when it comes out in June. And yes, I pray you and your family stay well and safe during this uncertain time. Blesings.
Ava PennningtonApril 2, 2020 9:32 am
Such a timely post.
And congratulations on your book!
Anne Mackie MorelliApril 2, 2020 11:32 am
Thanks Ava! I look forward to holding the actual book in my hands in June! It has been such an intensive process and I am so grateful for the journey and what it has revealed and taught to me. I pray it blesses others in similar ways. I pray you and your family are all doing well.
Jessica BrodieApril 2, 2020 9:38 am
Prayers for you, Anne. This is a powerful and timely topic! I love what you said: ” I am okay with the mystery and the not knowing, but only because I know and trust the One who holds it. The Someone who tenderly cradles us in the palms of his compassionate hands, as we navigate our way forward, and through this challenging time.” Amen.
Anne Mackie MorelliApril 2, 2020 11:30 am
Jessica, Thanks for visiting The Stones Call and for commenting. Yes, the book’s topic is very timely and all on God’s providential timing. And may we all find comfort in knowing our beautiful, loving, unfathomable God is ever-present and will never leave us or forsake us. Blessings to you and your family. Stay safe and stay well.
Karen FridayApril 2, 2020 3:48 pm
Anne, I have enjoyed your comments on my blog posts about this manuscript and how you studied the life of Job as you finished. Love this: “But while suffering will always be a universal, timeless human experience, it is also true that there is no one set framework or pathway through our grief. Grief is not a complete, linear process. It is complex.” So true, I can relate to this in my own experiences with grief and suffering.
Looking forward to this book and simply sounds amazing!
Anne Mackie MorelliApril 3, 2020 3:58 pm
Karen, I pray that some of my writing and my posts will resonate with people as they face and walk through suffering and adversity. It is such a challenging time for everyone as we all face such uncertainty. I pray that people know of God’s love and have a framework for understanding suffering as we walk through this crisis. I pray you and your family are all doing well and staying safe. Thanks for your encouragement. God bless.
Melissa McLaughlinApril 2, 2020 4:58 pm
Beautifully written, Anne. Suffering is one topic where there are no easy answers. Yet you capture here the greatness of God and the great love He has for His creation. That much, we can definitely understand. May we rest in that truth when we cannot understand the pain. Looking forward to your book!
Anne Mackie MorelliApril 3, 2020 3:51 pm
Melissa, thank you so much for reading the post and commenting. Thankfully, while we may not understand all that is unfolding in our lives and in the world around us, we can rest in the certainty God is above all, mighty, just, good and loving. He is intimately involved and cares deeply for his creation. Blessings to you and your family.
Emily Saxe | To UnearthApril 3, 2020 12:46 pm
Wow, God’s timing is perfect! Congratulations on your submitted manuscript — what an amazing accomplishment! I hope to be there someday. 😉
Anne Mackie MorelliApril 3, 2020 3:46 pm
Thanks so much, Emily for your kind comments. I am sure you will accomplish what you set your mind too!Stay safe and stay well.
Melinda Viergever InmanApril 3, 2020 4:10 pm
I am eagerly awaiting your book. This is so timely and so encouraging. Your takeaway from Job is the takeaway that I experienced as well, when I studied it during a time of great suffering in my life. I thought this might be the case as we’ve talked from time to time about Job in recent years.
I’m incredibly impressed by your writing, which is exquisite, clean, and straightforward, thus enabling the reader to comprehend deep and rich truths. I haven’t read any theological writing anywhere that has writing this clear and comprehensible, including my own. I recognize excellence when I see it. Well done!
I love what you’ve said about God in these two quotes:
“God’s speeches are exquisitely crafted. They provide a glimpse of our majestic, powerful heavenly Father. A God who is wildly imaginative and who loves everything he creates. At the same time, he does not feel answerable to the mere mortal about why he creates and does things the way he does. Thus, he remains incomprehensible and mysterious.”
“However, God does allow us to catch sight of how deeply invested he is in his creation, how he lovingly manages every minute detail and how he remains ever-present in every one of our stories.”
This post is so rich and inspiring that I anticipate the book even more. Superb, dear Anne, absolutely superb! God bless you, sister! I so look forward to reading the book! Comprehending lament and the suffering experienced in this book is essential for those of us who suffer, and that will be all of us at one point or another.
Anne Mackie MorelliApril 4, 2020 10:10 am
Dear friend. Thank you so much for your encouraging and supportive words. Yes, over the last years we have had conversations about some of our various challenges, our loss and grief, and the Book of Job. And we have each shared some of our journeys and been able to support one another as we grieve and walk through them. Part of my book focuses on how Job’s companions’ misguided attempts to support and comfort Job led them to be miserable companions and worthless physicians. Their efforts actually ended up wounding Job and complicating his grief. In the book, I focus on what Job’s companions can teach us about becoming more consoling and compassionate as we support each other in suffering. And dear Melinda, you are already that – a caring, consoling companion. You are so quick to encourage and support others and willing to step into their suffering to offer prayer and compassion. You are a gift and I am thankful for you.
Nancy E HeadApril 3, 2020 7:34 pm
I love this: “During this unprecedented, uncertain time I have particularly held Job’s narrative close. And I hold tight to all that Job has taught me. He showed me how to search for God in my suffering. How to lament, cry out, express all of my grief and heartache to God. How to invite God into my story. How to listen for God, and to God.”
That’s just what to focus on now–listening and drawing close! God bless!
Anne Mackie MorelliApril 4, 2020 10:02 am
Nancy, listening and drawing close to God is what is giving me peace and strength and patience during this unsettled time. Resting in God, his character, his promises and his great love for us is our sure foundation. I pray you and your family are all doing well during this difficult time. Blessings.
Betty J DraperApril 9, 2020 9:27 pm
I love Job. My favorite chapter is 26 where Job rebukes Bildad by reminding him who his God is. I have used verse 7b more times then I can count to explain the God I trust. And verse 14 to explain how we may here on this side see the fringes of His way and that is enough. How blessed you must feel to have your book finished, Job, not many tackle Job, it’s daunting because I found the book of Job uncovers the book of Betty. Inside his heart beats a Betty heart, a heart that does not want suffering to grow, begs God to take it away, wants answers to it, yet knows He hangs the earth on nothing. Bless you for using your time to bring more clarity to suffering, bless you.
Anne Mackie MorelliApril 14, 2020 11:13 am
Thanks for visiting The Stones Call Betty. Yes, tackling the Book of Job was a challenging task. And it was further complicated because I combined it with my counselling experiences around loss and grief and my own experiences with walking through a winter season of suffering. But I do pray that readers will learn how to enter into suffering and grow in their confidence to become consoling comforters. I too identified with Job and as I read his narrative over and over, I resonated with his struggles, his desire to understand why he had to suffer and to find God in his suffering and why a good God allows good people to suffer. Blessings to you too.
Jeanne TakenakaApril 10, 2020 10:52 am
Anne, Job is such a beautiful book. We humans tend to like stiff borders to frame our beliefs. But God has never fit within any sort of box. And the ways He works are so much broader than we can understand. Job’s “friends” couldn’t grasp this. They couldn’t see Job through God’s eyes but only through their level of understanding.
We have to remember that God works in ways we don’t understand. And when our friends and loved ones grieve, we’re not always going to understand the whys behind what happened. We’re not always going to know what to say. I guess the best way we can comfort is in trying to see them through God’s eyes of love.
I’m looking forward to hearing about your book’s progress toward publication!
Anne Mackie MorelliApril 14, 2020 11:08 am
Jeanne, I totally agree that we tend to prefer stiff borders, making well-laid plans and avoiding suffering. But what we tend to forget is that God is in control and he has good intentions for us that we may not understand or know about ahead of time. The reasons God chooses to do things in the way he does is unfathomable to the human mind. But we can rest in the knowledge that God is good and just and is always present in our suffering. And you are so right about how while people may want to help someone who is suffering it can often be challenging to know what to say and how best to provide consoling support. That is part of what my book is about – how do we enter into suffering in ways that are consoling and compassionate, rather than becoming miserable comforters like Job’s companions… Thanks for your interest in my book. I really appreciate it! I pray you and your family continue to stay safe and well during this challenging time.
Sarah GeringerApril 16, 2020 11:17 am
Congrats! May God bless your publishing journey!
Anne Mackie MorelliApril 18, 2020 9:35 am
Thank you Sarah!
LaurenApril 22, 2020 11:11 am
What an amazing achievement! Congratulations on your blog. I hope you are staying safe!
Anne Mackie MorelliApril 28, 2020 10:10 am
Thanks for dropping by The Stones Call Lauren! And for your encouraging comments. Yes, we are staying safe and well and I pray you and your dear ones are all doing well too. Blessings.
Ava JamesApril 22, 2020 2:11 pm
Knowing God’s certainty is such an encouragement at this time! There really is no one like God that can hold us right now. Congratulations on your new book!
Anne Mackie MorelliApril 28, 2020 10:09 am
I totally agree with you Ava. In these unsettling and uncertain times, it is wonderful to have a sure foundation in God. And thanks for your encouragement about my book.
ColleneApril 22, 2020 3:48 pm
Congrats on your book! Such a great topic to write on. Thank you for sharing!
Anne Mackie MorelliApril 28, 2020 10:08 am
Collene, Thanks for dropping by The Stones Call! And thanks for your encouraging comments. I am in the midst of doing the final tweaks on the manuscript and then off to the publishers for the final time! So I am relieved and excited that it is now in the final stages.