Job 15:12
Why let your heart impassion you,
Why let your eyes flash with anger,
Day two of trying to make myself do things even when sleepy. It was a little easier, but I still ‘feel’ the physical drive to stay in bed. I’ll shoot for making a little more progress down the list today. I read about people who need less sleep as they age, but I am not sure I believe it any longer.
‘Why Let’ was also ‘why does’, ‘why has’, and ‘how has’. ‘Impassion’ was ‘carry away’, ‘swept you away’, and ‘taken you away’. The impassion actually came from ‘your passion inflame’ with no mention of the heart.
‘Flash with anger’ was also ‘flash’, ‘wink at’, ‘failed’, ‘beguiled’, and ‘prompted’.
When I think about this verse, I am reminded of the battle between heart and mind as a battle between emotions and logic. The idea is that we need to be like Spock and follow logic and not like Kirk and allow emotions to run the day. As logically as I always seemed to be, I identified more with Kirk as controlled by emotion. My struggles with anger now may be different than they were as a kid, but I had a huge temper and ever so often it got the better of me.
What I have finally come to realize, without maybe putting any real pieces together, is that logic and emotion are both imperfect and that the only true way to run a life is to follow the call of God and compare all we do to the lessons He gave us in the Bible. Instead of letting our emotions lead us or to sit back and logically think everything through, we need to ask God what we should do and wait on the answer. Put out the kitchen fire or let the house burn? Logically, put out the fire, but our emotions are a surge of fear to run and not a conscious thought about saving all our stuff.
The guy who was helped by the good Samaritan was probably leading a life led by emotions. Why else would they be out alone with assets on the road back in that day since that was a good way to get yourself in a world of trouble. The most likely response to questioning what the Bible says would have been to wait until you had enough people going with you to be safe. While lost to history due to its definition, the past is full of people who died doing stupid things all on their own. No one was there to save them when they fell off a cliff, got stuck in a cave, got between a bear and her cub. Logic and emotion have big roles to play in our lives, but they are the supporting cast and the lead is to come from observing the ways of the Lord and following Him.
I like numbers, so I was miffed when I did not see that my last post was number 600 on this site. While maybe not as consistent as I want to be, I am continuing to plug away.
Written 12/12/24, Posted 1/16/25, Job 349