Job

From our friends at Wikipedia.com:

"Job was a man of great probity, virtue, and religion, and he possessed much riches in cattle and slaves, which at that time constituted the principal wealth even of princes in Arabia and Edom. He had seven sons and three daughters and was in great repute among all people, on both sides of the Euphrates.

His sons made entertainments for each other; and when they had gone through the circle of their days of feasting, Job sent to them, purified them, and offered burn-offerings for each one in order that God might pardon any faults unintentionally committed against him during such festivities. He was wholly averse from injustice, idolatry, fraud, and adultery. He avoided evil thoughts, and dangerous looks, was compassionate to the poor, a father to the orphan, a protector to the widow, a guide to the blind, and a supporter to the lame.

God permitted Satan to put the virtue of Job to the test. At first by giving him power over his property, but forbidding him to touch his person. Satan began with taking away his oxen: a company of Sabeans slew his husbandmen and drove off all the beasts; one servant only escaping to bring the news. While he was reporting this misfortune, a second came, and informed Job that fire from heaven had consumed his sheep, and those who kept them; and that he alone had escaped. A third messenger arrived, who said "The Chaldeans have carried away the camels, have killed all your servants, and I only am escaped."He had scarcely concluded, when another came, and said, "While your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking in their eldest brother's house, an impetuous wind suddenly overthrew it, and they were all crushed to death under the ruins; I alone am escaped to bring you this news."

Job rented his clothes and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground saying, "Naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave and the Lord had taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."As Job endured these calamities without repining against Providence, satan solicited permission to afflict his person, and the Lord said, "Behold he is in your hand, but don’t touch his life." Satan, therefore, smote him with a dreadful disease, probably leprosy, and Job, seated in ashes, scraped off the corruption with a potsherd. His wife incited him to "curse God, and die" but Job answered "Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?"

In meantime, three of his friends, having been informed of his misfortunes, came to visit him - Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. A fourth was Elihu the Buzite, who from chapter 32 bears a distinguished part in the dialogue. It is also interesting to note that others also may have been listening to the dialogue of Job and his three friends.

They continued seven days sitting on the ground by him, without speaking, but at last Job broke silence, and complained of his misery. His friends, not distinguishing between the evils with which God tries those whom he loves and the afflictions with which he punishes the wicked, accused him of having indulged some secret impiety, and urged him to return to God by repentance and humbly to submit to his justice, since he suffered only according to his demerits.

Job, convinced of his own innocence, maintained that his sufferings were greater than his faults and that God sometimes afflicted the righteous only to try them, to give them an opportunity of manifesting or of improving their pious dispositions, or because it was his pleasure, for reasons unknown to mankind."

The above synopsis pretty much summed up how I felt when part of our building facade came crashing down to the pavement last Thursday.