Job 15:4

Indeed,

   You are subverting reverence for God,

      Diminishing communion with God.

 

I had dinner with three friends from my college days. I hadn’t seen one in months, one in years, and the other in a decade. These were the people I spent most of the last two years of college with on an everyday basis. I sometimes wish I could reconnect with people from high school, but these three are friends who I really missed all those years we were raising kids.

‘Subverting’ was also ‘doing away with’, ‘undermining’, ‘casting off’, and ‘thwarting’. I’m not sure subvert was the best word, but it was the coolest. ‘Reverence’ was also ‘piety’, ‘fear’, and the ‘sense of reverence’. The sense of reverence seems more applicable but didn’t fit with subverting.

‘Diminishing’ was also ‘hindering’, ‘restraining’, and ‘taking away’. ‘Communion’ was also ‘meditating’, ‘devotion’. ‘praying’, and ‘laying unworthy complaints before’.

Back in the day, I listened to music all the time. As a small poor child I had a radio from selling things through the school, at some point I got to use my step-father’s stereo, eventually I saved up enough to buy a cassette player, and was fortunate to get one in my car. I bought my first real stereo with money saved up ‘coop’ing during the summer which I guess now would just be called an internship. One of these friends went with me to buy the stereo and he was a big help in picking the one I did. I still use the tape deck here in the office and those two speakers in the garage. Like these two items, his influence from those years is probably all over my life now.

The friend I hadn’t seen in decades was instrumental in getting me to go to Aggie Awakening back in the day. All three of these guys are Catholic and our mutual friendship helped me mature my relationship with Christ at a pivotal time. I have stores of joy saved up from that time period in my life and pray for all those who touched me and who hopefully I touched back then. Hard to believe that little things like moving and having kids changes the core relationships in your life. I always have my friend in Jesus and He is enough for me, but I look forward to reengaging these relationships.

As I may have mentioned recently, I heard a viewpoint different from Job’s friends that Job’s complaining to God was actually a sign of love and respect rather than the opposite. As bad as Job had it, he still went to God with everything. Many people turn their backs on God, but Job went running to him. I view my life as a constant dependency upon God and my wife to get me through the day. I make so many mistakes, and the world is so full of evil, that I could easily have found a different path. I’ll try not to overdo it, but I do look forward to getting out of my comfort spot and being a little more engaging.

Written 11/21/24, Posted 12/12/24, Job 342