Job 21:4
As for me, is my complaint to a mere man?
Why therefore, should I not be impatient?
At multiple points this past week as I was dealing with issues, I told people that the only way I was getting through this was God told me to, and I am following. In the last few days, I read about suffering because we are Christians. I never imagined that all this could be because I am a Christian and the suffering is being caused by someone who is not. This thought makes me want to treat the issue all the better in order to love my enemy.
‘As for me’ only showed up in half the sources. ‘To’ was also ‘addressed’, ‘directed’, or ‘against’. ‘A mere man’ was also ‘man’, ‘mortals’, and ‘a person’.
‘Why therefore’ was also ‘and if it were’, ‘how can’, or simply ‘why’.
I spoke with a colleague who grew up in a muslim country with Christian missionaries as parents. During our conversations, I discussed the Lord’s Prayer with evil vs the evil one. It reminded me that the Greek had ‘the evil one’, and that it is in our best interest to remember that we are not fighting against other people. We are trying to win people over to Christ, and Satan is trying to prevent that. This person is not my enemy, he is either misguided by temptation or flat out following the flesh.
My life is now full of stress and health issues that combine to keep me from performing as well as I should. I have been trying to get each into its box, but they seem to work together to hold me back. One thing I read was that I just needed to decide to be better, and my subconscious would work to make the better happen. I know my brain works better when I let it, but I have to use my consciousness to determine to follow God and not let my subconscious follow my sin nature.
I have read and learned more good things I can do to improve my health than a person can possibly do in one day. I want to do as much as I can, but I have so many other things that I need to do or that I can do to help those around me. I also do not want my life filled with drudgery. I have been blessed my whole life with so much, that I am humbled by Job’s thought to complain to God. My failings deserve death and any life I have left is all a blessing from God. My striving is to do the best I can with it.
Written 4/19/26 Posted 5/14/26, Job 490/~1070