Job 19:5

Though you vaunt yourselves above me,

   Use my disgrace as an argument against me,

I experimented with pork bellies last night. I was not sure everyone would eat them, and not sure they would turn out, so I also browned some hamburger meat and warmed up some sausage. Turns out everyone liked the pork bellies enough to eat them, and I neglected to turn the heat off on the other meat until after dinner. So, I have at least three meals of well cooked hamburger meat and sausage to look forward to. Not sure why, but I like it that way better as long as it doesn’t burn.

‘Vaunt’ is a big word used with ‘above’ that was also ‘quarrel with’, ‘act superior to’, ‘are overbearing toward’, ‘magnify against’, and ‘exalt against’. ‘Though’ was mostly ‘if indeed’ or the like.

‘Disgrace’ was also ‘humiliation’, ‘suffering’, or ‘reproach’. ‘Argument’ was also a verb in ‘plead’, ‘reproach’, ‘scold’, and ‘justify’. The biggest competing idea was that his companions wanted to argue with him and justify how they were humiliating him.

As with the verse yesterday, my main take away is how Christians use the smallest of failings against each other to turn their backs on and treat poorly their brothers and sisters in Christ. It is bad enough when done in families of non-believers, but it happens in the church and in families of people who claim to follow Christ. My end of the day quiet time because I was overwhelmed from Monday led me to look at some of my long-term neighbors and how I myself had tried to ignore them due to them treating me in a way I did not think aligned with their supposed faith. I was offended and tired of it.

One long-term goal was to surround myself with believers who were more mature than me so I could improve my behavior while interacting with them. The alternative to this is to ignore those who bring you down. Hard to help others when you are ignoring them. One of my new goals is to help struggling Christians. I just need to remember which group is which.

The correct posture for us to have with sinners is not that we are better, but that we are to serve. Christ washed our feet. How could we not learn humility from this act? I have begun to think of myself as a hot mess as I struggle to get the things I want done along with meeting our needs. I also need to understand that some of my wants are indeed needs if I am to live a long fulfilling life for Christ. Each of my activities need to be an act of obedience to glorify God. My happiness surely cannot be enough to justify anything.

Written 10/22/25, Posted 12/24/25, Job 435/~1070