Job 17:11
My days have surpassed my hopes,
Cut off from my heart’s desires.
With the latest round of Astros pitcher injuries, I found myself more wanting to not get so upset when things go wrong with them. I canceled the service I use to watch them now that the season is coming to an end and did so before I had to pay an extra month. It doesn’t help me not want to watch, but it does help me not be mad and have to pay an extra month. I was intrigued by the verse as I was sitting here wondering how to deal with the gap between what my heart and mind want.
‘Surpassed’ was also ‘outlasted’, ‘have passed’ (with that ending the stitch), ‘are done’, and many times ‘are past’.
‘My hopes’ was at the end of the first stitch in my favorite source, and I went that way originally, but the variety at this point in the verse needs its own paragraph. One source had the end of the first stitch as ‘my plans are broken off’. Others broke this off to a separate stitch all together. Other alternatives include ‘my plans are shattered’, ‘my purposes…’, ‘my tendons severed’, ‘…pulled apart’, or pushed the phrase into the final stitch.
‘Cutoff’ was sometimes deleted, ‘once snapped’, and the rest of the time combined with the action from the first or previous stitch. The cleanest of these was ‘my plans, my heart strings, snapped.’ as the second stitch all together. This well fits normal two stitch multi-meaning flow. ‘My heart’s desires’ was also just ‘heart’, ‘thoughts of…’, and ‘strings of…’.
When I started pulling thoughts together, I wanted this verse to be about making the decision to move past what my heart desires and choosing to want only what God wants. I do not want to care about the Astros, but I do, and a lot. I do not want to really like my cars, but I do. I do not want to be emotionally tied to my house, but I am. People don’t get mad when their team loses badly due to their own failings; people don’t get too emotional when their car is put at risk, and people change houses as if it’s no big deal. I am not those people.
One of my baseball card collecting rules is that I never want to buy a card for more than the next guy is willing to pay, and another is that I do not want to pay more than I want to pay. One card I ‘want’ is actually one I sold a long time ago. I bought it for next to nothing, but someone came along and offered me $200 for it. Since my want was only ‘worth’ about $60, I sold it and moved on. Many years later the card showed up for sell, and I was happy to spend the $60 to get it back. Only it was an auction, and it went for well over double that. I know it was a first 1/1 superfractor (like the ultimate card for each player), but he never even made the majors. I feel as though I have tempered my wants to try and be a good steward of what God has provided me.
As I age, I realize that time does not make us wiser or better. Time passing only allows us opportunities to get wiser or better, and it is how we use that time that determines whether we mature and improve or grow old and worthless. I do not think this verse was meant to be three stitches. That layout leaves a gap in action. I do not think putting the desires of my heart as the second stitch work’s any better. Therefore, I think the form I used is correct, but maybe not the phrasing. Plans, purposes, and tendons do not seem as appropriate as hopes. I really do like outlasted more than passed. And the cutoff usage surpasses the other options others used. So, I am left where I started. Trying to wrap my wants into God’s call on me to glorify Him and love others. Maybe I need to learn to modify those things I am emotional about to topics and not wants? At least a new path to learn about.
Written 9/10/25, Posted 9/25/25, Job 107/~1070