Job 10:17

You constantly summon fresh witnesses against me,

   Letting Your vexation with me swell,

      Wave after wave of hardship assail me.

 

As I age, I hear more and more people say, “It sucks to get old.” My body supports this theory, but my mind is not ready to accept it. The countering phrase my head uses is, ”We are spiritual beings temporarily in a physical world.”

I used “constantly” and “new” in the first stitch, but there was probably only one in the Hebrew. I could not figure a better way to combine the idea of a stream of more and different witnesses. This was also apparently the way my favorite source did it. The closest alternative was “renew”. “Witnesses” was also the singular “witness” of God, but while intriguing, it did not ring true for the court room scene.

“Vexation” was also “indignation” and “hostility”, but I identify with vexation more closely. “Swell” was also “increase”, and “grow”.

The third stitch had some different ideas. “Fresh”, “ever”, “constantly”, and verb tenses were used rather than “wave upon wave”, but I went with what I thought was more poetic. One idea was that God was sending “troops”, “forces”, or “foes”, another was that He was sending “Changes and War”, and another was that Job was acting as his own replacement in a battle. I went with the idea that the “travail” or “vanishings and hardship” were the things constantly wearing on Job.

My body and the physical aspects of my mind are definitely not as good as they have been, and even if I get them as good as they can be, it will be an ever-declining state that I need to accept and accommodate. The better side is that I can get closer and closer to God, becoming more mature, and building better and more relationships with those I encounter.

The pursuits of our lives should not be physical attainment, but spiritual. We should not need to do stuff, but to engage with people. One article I skimmed said we need to invite people over just to hang out. Kids do it all the time. Why do adults always have to have an agenda? I met my mentor so I could talk while eating. I meet my friends while they drink coffee. I plan to do more when I look at cars, or do baseball stuff, or whatever comes along, not to do something, but to do with someone.

I’ll probably never dunk a volleyball again, or run the 40-yard dash in 5.0 seconds, or bench press 190 lbs, but I do expect to learn to love God more, to learn to love my friends better, and to actually do so. That is the slice of heaven that I can have here on earth, and the one that I am making my goal. Yes, the word I dread more than new years resolution. Maybe not a smart goal, but one I want to reach nevertheless.

 

(Written 1/5, Posted ?, Job 225)