Job 6:18

Their paths twist and turn,

   Wander into the void and vanish.

I had the idea that if I combined verses, I could probably go faster. However, I decided speed was not the goal, not matter how verses like these few would flow together.

Leading students today was way different as I had to print out a name tag that showed I had been approved. I assume some lawyer got after someone and this ridiculous idea came out of it. If only approved leaders can be in the room, then the only person it helps is the minister over the program and allows him to not have to know everyone and their approval status. But I did learn that Whataburger has grocery bags.

Two sources had caravans of people as the subjects with some odd logic that wadis causing people to change course while crossing the desert in search of water. The subject is the wadi itself and the stitch is about how it does not have a straight course like a man-made channel. In place of “path”, other sources had “courses”, “way”, and “caravans”. Rather than “twist and turn”, alternatives were “turn aside from their course (or route)”, “turn aside”, “twist”, “are winding”, and “wind away”.  I picked the most straight forward options. (Was that a pun?)

“Wander into” won out over “go up into”, “go”, “go to”, “run into”, and “mount into”. Half has this vertical aspect of up that of course water cannot follow. “The void” was chosen from “waste”, “wasteland”, “nowhere”, “nothing”, “the desert”, and “nothingness”. All of these seem to be a possible description of the desert the wadi is in anyway and “the void” stood out as something different at the very least. “Vanish” was used over “perish”, “disappear, and “are lost”. ”Perish” seemed out of step with the physical nature of water, “are lost” would equally seem to lean towards people over water, and vanish was simply cooler than “disappear” despite the INXS song influence.

Yesterday was super cool from me for a whole host of reasons, but two were totally God things. One of my clients invited me to the Rodeo cook off. Even though it was a client, I would normally have not gone on such short notice, but we were going anyway so it was a great opportunity to visit with him and introduce the wife. The other was tickets. Even thought my client and our friends were providing tickets for food, they invited us to something we would have had to pay to get into. No big deal, but in the past the lines have been long. This year the lines were almost non-existent because they had vendors walking around selling them. Despite this, I felt God telling me to go to the line. And just after one of the weirdest exchanges of miscommunication I have been in, someone came up and offered us free tickets. I was overwhelmed with just how not normal this string of events was to be blessed by God.

I have a desire to accelerate my study through Job and push out the result as a book for people to receive and journey through. But I also have a huge appreciation for how this study is working on me (through twists and turns) and that as I wander and follow God into the void that is the future, I know that even should it all vanish, this is the path God has laid out for me. To wander and not be lost.