Job 18:8

He is cast into a net by his feet,

   He walks into a pit fall.

 

This whole week was supposed to be an easy week after the stress of last week and before my trip next week. Yesterday set that idea on its head, and now today and tomorrow look like more of the same. It is good to have work to do, but it helps to have your stuff together. At least I am not the Detroit Tigers or Houston Astros.

‘Cast’ was also ‘thrust’, ‘led’, ‘sent off’, and ‘caught’. ‘Led’ might be the better word, but it lacks something in English. ‘By his feet’ was also ‘by his own feet’ (reinforcing the issue), ‘around his feet’ (denying the issue), and something similar to around. The idea that his feet are not causing his downfall is very different.

‘He’ was also ‘they (as in his feet)’. ‘Walks’ was also ‘wanders’ and ‘treads’. ‘Pit fall’ was also ‘mesh’, ‘snare’, ‘toils’, ‘tangles’, and ‘tangle of lines’.

I finished going through the book on habits for the second time, and I figured out I am following my high school physics teacher’s plan for learning something. I used it as a freshman in college, and it got me through. I modified it, and it helped me get through the rest of school. Now, apparently, I have subconsciously decided that the application of this book is important for me, and I am taking steps to make it happen.

I struggled with snare and pit fall in stitch two. I pictured it as a pit fall, but snare captures the deception required better. A friend of mine skipped running on vacation since he was afraid of bears. For whatever reason, my mind led me to a thought that the only real thing we should fear is other people. A bear might hurt you if you scare it or get between it and its cub, but a person will kill you for no reason whatsoever. I read about some court letting a murdering cannibal out on bail or something. That guy is something to be afraid of.

One of the entertaining things I have learned through my wife’s telling me about her clients is how old people with tons of money will change insurance to save a comparatively tiny amount of money. One lady with tens of millions of dollars in the bank is worried over a few hundred dollars. When people with no savings are seeing increases in the many thousands of dollars, it’s just entertaining to see people panic over pennies.

I, of course, have done the same thing on different issues at different scales. An option on a car for hundreds of dollars when the car costs many thousands is a stupid way to be frugal. Avoiding paying double for a $1 baseball card (I have done this.) pales in comparison to wasting hundreds on a thousand-dollar card. (I have not done that by the way.) Trying to wrap this up: Our nature is susceptible to being deceived. If we are not thinking, our habits, our cultural clues, and the evils ones around us will take us for all we have. God gave us a brain. Make sure you use it.

Written 9/25/25, Posted 10/19/25, Job 418/~1070