Study of Job 12:13

With God are wisdom and strength,

   Counsel and understanding are His.

 

I went back home for a funeral this week. I struggled with the idea of home and hometown as I think my home is where my wife and I are, but the concept of where I am from always leads to the word home as well. I hadn’t been back in at least seven years and unlike the last few times when I went back for a school reunion to see everyone, I went back to see one specific person.

‘With God’ was also ‘To God belong’ and ‘He has’. I admire the possessive intent, but I preferred the less direct wording. ‘Strength’ was also ‘power’ and ‘courage’. I often incorrectly think courage only comes form power and strength, but the basic concept of strength seemed sufficient.

Many sources started the second stitch with ‘He has’, but I prefer the verses which carry this different order pattern. The only other difference was a single use of ‘insight’ in place of ‘understanding’.

The funeral was for someone who I met at the age of 5 or 6, and I now recognize the great impact he had on my life. I was surprised with how happy I was to be able to go to the funeral and see my friend. Having lost my father, I had some understanding of my friend’s loss, but they had much more time together along the way, so maybe I did not understand it well. I see with this verse that true understanding is only with God and our attempts to understand the circumstances of others always fall short.

My current life consists of more counsel than ever before as I slowly learn that others might be able to help me be the better me. I always had head knowledge that God was my best counsel, but I was slow to learn that sometimes He only speaks through others. I haven’t seen my friend much in the last thirty-seven years, but I always felt he was someone who I could turn to for counsel had I thought about it. I now know that this was because of the godly influence his father had on him and me.

Totally unexpected on the trip were two separate opportunities to pass on a little of what I know to two young engineers and an engineering college student. For many of the first years of my career, I was the youngest guy around and I had tons of time to pick the brains of others and learn. As the next wave of my career progressed, I often had duties to train younger engineers or opportunities to mentor within local schools. The early stages of my “expert” career left me little opportunity to even realize I might be helping those younger than me as I struggle to figure out how to get work done and learn how others expected me to lead without telling me how. Now I have had years of working all by myself and helping no one as I feasted or famine on too little or too much work.

The first of these two chances was with the student and lasted 8 minutes as I told him everything I could as I rushed off to the funeral. My goal of providing wisdom and strength to him was probably about how long I give God to provide the same to me. The second opportunity was with the two young engineers as we presented a long-term plan to get them licensed as engineers in about five years. This plan to give them just little bits over a long period is how God prepares me to receive wisdom and strength from Him.

I asked my mentor tonight if he thought my life reflected the slow infusion of God’s love into the lives around me as opposed to one big moment and reassuringly, he said it must. One of my favorite songs from my initial Aggie Awakening spoke about an opportunity for everyone you ever helped to thank you once you got to heaven. I never like to put too much expectation on heaven beyond the overwhelming grandness of the presence of God, but I do like the thought that maybe I will one day know if my efforts made a difference. I do want to continue to focus on the doing and not the outcomes while I live, but I do want to take time in this life to thank those who have helped me along the way.

Written 11/2/23, Posted 11/14, Job 266