Job 22:4

Is it because of your piety that He reproves you?

   Comes to judgement against you?

I find this verse funny. The answer is yes, but Job along with everyone else does not know that God is allowing this to happen because Job loves God so much. I can picture the actor performing this with every ounce of piety they can muster. I am not much into being able to criticize actors, but I can imagine.

‘Because’ was also ‘for’ making me almost want to research the difference. ‘Piety’ was also ‘fear of Him’ or ‘reverence’. ‘Reproves’ was also ‘rebukes’, ‘corrects’, or ‘arraigns’.

‘Judgement’ was also once ‘brings charges against’. The wording around judgement is less consistent that its use seven times would appear to show. ‘Enters into with you’, ‘bringing you to’, and ‘against you’ are examples. It is almost an agreement rather than judging.

My oldest once asked me how do people without Jesus get along. Based on how hard life can be, she knew her faith in Christ sustained her. She saw it be the foundation of my life, my wife’s, and her grandparent’s. I had no answer for her. Over the last ten months I have struggled mightily in many different areas. I rely on God to get me through, but I too wonder how life without this faith would be.

I got very irritated yesterday, and my mind ran amok as they say. At the end of it, all I wanted was to scale my life back to the absolute minimum so that I have more capacity to look at others and am not so balled up in keeping all my own balls in the air. As I have older friends retiring, or rich ones, I keep getting the bug to know what that life is about for someone who wants to follow God and support others learning about Him. I know my road will be my own, but my real goal will be to see how I can incorporate working less and spending that time volunteering as if I was retired.

I have already decided to remove a desk from this room. The reason I can is that my offshore work has dried up, but it will really give me more space to pace when I am on the phone. That has been the hardest part about moving into this room (less space to pace), but being able to shut the door and spread everything out has been more than worth it. Now all I have to do is actually move all the stuff on the desk, all the stuff on the floor, all the stuff in the way, and then I can move the really heavy filing cabinet to where the desk is, move all the other desks, and then I can pace to my hearts delight. As if I really want to be on the phone at all.

Written 7/14/26, Posted 8/17/26, Job 523/~1070