Job 5:6. "For affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble sprout from the ground; but man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward." This is Job's friend Eliphaz essentially telling Job that Job's sufferings didn't come out of the blue, he must have done something to precipitate them (just what every suffering person wants to hear!).

The Book of Job is a lesson in suffering and how we cannot fathom God's ways in permitting it. We know that God is trustworthy, though, just as Job did, so we must patiently bear our suffering, even when it seems overwhelming and like something no God of love would allow. Great things are accomplished through great suffering borne rightly.

Let's face it, though, we all think like Eliphaz at times - we see someone in a bad way and we think, even if we don't say, that they must have done something wrong to get to that place. When we allow this judgment to cloud our perception, our acts of mercy become tainted by our judgment of the person we are trying to help - we become prideful in thinking we are helping or offering advice to someone whose failings caused their own misery. Usually the person we are trying to help can sense this attitude, even if we don't say it aloud, and they can come to resent us and the very help we are offering them.

This attitude of judgment often gives the Church a bad name. Good works tainted by judgment have diminished effectiveness and can cause people to look on us as hypocrites. So we must always be careful not to be Eliphaz, and instead just meet people where they are without judging how we think they got there.