When Job’s three friends came to show him sympathy in his
time of distress, they wept, tore their robes and sat with him on the ground
seven days and seven nights, and no
one spoke a word to him because they saw that his suffering was very great.
The week of silence was a genuine gesture of solidarity and
goodwill, but everything Job’s friends did from that point on was a bit of a
bust. Why? Because they opened their mouths and started talking — and
arguing at great length — about something they weren’t going through and
clearly didn’t understand.
We Christians may be at risk of doing much the same thing
with respect to the current racial tensions in the U.S.