Job 8:10

Will they not instruct you,

   Will they not inform you,

Will they not bring forth

   These words from their understanding?

(Written 5/12 Posted 5/18)

Pandemic, inflation, recession, falling stock market, falling bond market, war, drought, climate change, political clashes, the list goes on of things that could give us cause to worry. The phrase I keep hearing is “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life (or career).” Our lives are too short to see the worst or best of everything. That is why God gave us historical perspective in the Bible and why we learn the phrase “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” All of these worrying things have happened many times over during the history of mankind. They are expected, they are known; but they are often deemed just historical.

“Instruct” was also “teach” (seven times) but it takes the effort of the learner to be taught.

“Inform” was also “tell” (6) or “say” (1), but I preferred the bigger picture of inform.

“Bring forth” was also “utter” (4) or “speak” (1), but I liked “bring forth” with the memory aspect of the stitch. “Understanding” was also “heart” (4). Heart and understanding are different, but with one source using both heart and memory, I leaned toward understanding, no pun intended.

My mental image is a bunch of old people shouting at the youngsters how to do something. It is as if they have the right to tell the youthful what to do simply because they have lived longer. The gap is that if they only tell you what they understand, they are no better at any of it than an educated young person.

I read a little article about some mathematician who changed the world, but only mathematicians knew it. As with many geniuses, his personal behavior was somewhat out of sync with society. It made me wonder it the idea to be an engineer saved me from living a similar freaked out existence trying to save the planet by conserving one small plot of land.

No matter how smart someone is, no matter how old someone is, there are still just two kinds of people, the lost and the saved. There are only two kinds of life, the one serving God and the one not. The saved not serving God are as useless to the cause as the lost. We who are saved need to understand that our service to God is the narrow path that helps bring the lost out of their useless existence. If they end up in hell, all their life was wasted. Our service does not have to change the world, but it should impact the existence of someone.