Job 14:2
Like a flower, they blossom and wither,
Like a shadow, they are fleeting and do not endure.
I am out of the office, but I decided to call into a meeting. A meeting I do not have to be on, but one that I had nothing to prevent me from getting on. In keeping with my theme from yesterday of throwing out old phrases, the one for this verse is ‘Make hay while the sun shines’. It was used in the meeting and applies to this discussion of blossoming and withering.
Lots of sources reversed the order of the ‘like a flower’ and ‘they blossom’ parts. Changes the character a little, but the meaning none. ‘Blossom’ was also ‘comes up’, ‘springs up’, and ‘comes forth’. ‘Flower’ was also ‘blossom’. ‘Wither’ was ‘fades away’, ‘is cut down’.
‘Endure’ was also ‘last’, ‘continue’, ‘unlingering’, or ‘stay’. ‘Fleeting’ was mainly ‘fleeing’, but also vanishes, neither of which seemed accurate.
One of the recurring themes in the Bible is do not look past now for what you can be doing. Planning for the future is good, but do not sacrifice now for what is only a possibility. It is how people like me justify accepting too much work now assuming it will all work out later. I try to pray about it and leave the decisions and timing up to God, but sometimes I panic.
The stock market has been down the last little bit. I saw somethings down about 10%, but I have moved into cash a little and feel good that “I” haven’t lost that much. Of course, I know it is all God’s and I am just trying to steward it, but it does feel better to have followed the “you should do this” I have heard and it worked a little. Feeling really good my 91 year old father in law is in all cash for this.
We talk about high school, college, graduate school, and all that, but sometimes I feel like we don’t do anything about right now. Doing things with the kids, doing things with friends, doing things with family, or just not doing nothing. I feel like our focus on work and keeping clients happy is just not the main thing it seems like. I pray that I can take the message in this verse and improve my following.
Written 8/2/24, Posted 8/28/24, Job 313