Job 21:14

Yet they say into God, ‘Depart from us!

   We desire not to know your ways.

 

(I obviously had no idea this would be Job #500 when I wrote it, so I hope it has enough context to carry that weight.)

I read this morning about cutting things out of your life that are keeping you from God. The only thought that came to mind was the guys at work causing me trouble. Even the dentist mentioned cutting things out of my life that are stressing me out. My thought was I would if I could. But the real question is, What is wrong with me that lets me get worked up by this person’s actions? (Funny how all that worked out already.)

‘Yet’ was also ‘and’ or left out. ‘Depart from us!’ was also ‘leave us alone’, ‘turn from us’, or ‘turn away from us’.

‘Desire’ was also ‘wish’ or ‘want’. ‘To know’ was also ‘to learn’ or ‘the knowledge of’.

The book I am finishing also uses the eulogy exercise to show us what we really want from life. I have to be honest and admit that I do not care what people think about me, at least in relationship to caring what God thinks of me. I do want my wife to respect me and my kids to have learned from me, but even these relationship goals pale in comparison to God. Of course, God wants me to love my wife and build her up and wants me to raise my kids up in the way He wants, so I do really care about them and these relationships, but not because of me.

I have been thinking briefly about retirement and how I would want to spend my time. It would be with people. People I like, but also people God brings into my life. The only gap between then and now is the time I need to work and the tasks I need to do to keep the home running. If I only had to work twenty hours a week, I could probably do that now. Oh well. (Or so I thought at the time.)

The dentist we go to is (or are) the parent(s) of a child who went to preschool with our oldest. I actually follow her on facebook although I never look at anyone’s posts. For the first time ever, we did not talk about the kids this morning. I guess she was busy and sees the kids when they come in now, and I was trying to wrap my head around my sensitivity to life. I am seeking to know how God wants me to deal with stressful situations without damaging my health further. It is a head scratcher for me. (Underwhelming is my first thought. The phrase I do not have all the answers ran through my head. Except there is only one answer and I have it, Jesus.)

Written 5/7/26, Posted6/16/26, Job 500/~1070