“Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?” Job 40:8
I grew up watching Happy Days and I always loved it when the situation required the Fonze to say that he was wrong. In his bold self-admiration and great pride, he just couldn’t do it. He would stammer, slur, and draw the first syllable out until the sound was nothing close to the word wrong. It was great comedy to see someone struggle with admitting that they were wrong, yet in real life it’s not quite so funny. Standing in front of someone and humbly admitting that you are wrong is one of the most difficult things to do on this planet. An act that sees more people either pull a Fonzie by never admitting they’re wrong, avoiding the entire event altogether leaving the wrong unaddressed, or lie to themselves and those around them by simply declaring they were never wrong. After I ponder the difficulty of admitting my wrong to others, I can see why the Fonze struggled so much. And to go one step deeper, I believe that the hardest part of admitting we are wrong lies not in the admittamce of our wrong, but in admitting that the other person is right. You see, if you admit you are wrong it’s the same as automatically admitting that the other person is right. And yes, this process includes God.
God gives Job a chance for rebuttal in chapter 40 and Job manages a very timid 34 words. A man that earlier in the book was pridefully orating entire chapters, now in the presence of Almighty God can only manage four short lines. Why the change? Why the sudden heart-shift in Job? Well, I would like to think that as Almighty God speaks to you from a massive tornado that you would instantly realize who you are and who God is. And as Job listens to God speak of the wonders of His creation, Job realizes that as he declared His own righteousness, he in that moment, was declaring God’s unrighteousness. You see, not everybody can be right, it’s just a fact of life. There is only one right and all else is wrong. As Job declared his mis-guided righteousness before God, he was in that moment claiming that his right trumped the right of God. A place that I think we have all been at low moments in life as we cry out in our pain as Job was doing. But as we draw ever closer to God and His glory and majesty, there can be no other conclusion drawn that that of Job:
“Behold, I am of small account, what shall I answer you? I lay my hand upon my mouth.” (Job 40:4)
How you see what is right today will change the way you see your world. Who is right, who deserves to be right, and ultimately what does right allow and afford the holder? Is claiming you’re right worth the fight and what will it cost you to hold the prize of being right high above your head in victory? Will it cost you your friends to hold that trophy? Will it cost you your marriage to be the one that is right? Will it cost you your job to claim that you were right and that your mean boss is always wrong? Or in the case of so many today, do you cling to your idea of what is right as you disregard the only true right of God? There’s a great saying that hits the nail on the head, “would you rather be right or happy?” Today, you can be like the Fonze and stammer and struggle with the idea of admitting to yourself and the world that you could be wrong, or you can humbly admit that you are human, make many mistakes, and being wrong is simply part of being human. And in this process of humility will come the fact that God, in His perfect righteousness, is not only always right, but the very one that created right. And how you admit your wrongs to God will mirror how you admit your wrongs to the world. Today, sit humbly at the feet of Jesus and if you are wrong, let it flow freely from you lips. For in this way, you will shed the need to be right, and instead, walk in the glorious freedom of God’s righteousness.
“But let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord.” Jeremiah 9:24
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