Job 21:23

One dies in full prosperity,

   Being wholly at ease and secure.

 

Today, I forgot my toiletry bag. It is really just an old ripped ziplock, but it works. I should probably replace it with something that would catch a leak, but I’ll probably wait until I get a ziplock that can’t be reused for food and use it until it rips or even beyond that. My frugality forbids I buy something that might not rip.

‘Prosperity’ was also ‘vigor’, ‘strength’, ‘health’, ‘well off’, and ‘innocent’. I doubt innocence was a real option. I am not sure how to understand ‘one’.

‘Wholly’ was also ‘completely’ and ‘all’. Other options were ‘quiet’, ‘tranquil’, ‘untroubled’, ‘content’, and ‘at peace’.

I actually spent money on not needs recently that were not baseball cards or clothes or any of the other things I tend to buy. I actually replaced some old bath towels with new ones, old dish towels with new cotton ones, old damaged plastic plates with glass ones, old damaged skillets with new ceramic ones, and bought glass storage containers so I could stop damaging the plastics ones in the microwave. Of course, I put my first leftovers in plastic and heated them up, but now that I have actually washed everything, I might use them the way they are intended.

One of my leftover issues from growing up poor is that I want more clothes than I can wear. Of course, they all have to be on sale or from a secondhand shop or whatever Ross Dress for Less counts as. I had a ton of 34” shorts that I hung on to even when I had to buy the 36” version to fit in them. Now that I am too small for the 34” versions, I have just resorted to wearing belts to hold them up. I certainly can’t see buying some that actually fit. It might force me to get rid of something. I did donate all the jeans and slacks I had that were too big. Next to buy a new suit or just get my suit pants tailored to fit the new me. (Update: I am relieved to have gotten more shorts that fit and a pair of slacks that fit.)

The book I read about storing up treasures in heaven had a bit about sharing the joy of giving with other Christians. People in general are fraught with envy, and Christians have learned to avoid deep discussions that even hint at excess, or at least the book made it seem so. After we first lead that Dave Ramsey class at church, we have been a little freer discussing tithing and financial planning and such. But even I have downplayed the opportunities to share that God has provided us. But even the anticipation of joy from giving the tithe this month is bubbling over. The only bit that doesn’t scare me about this verse is how hard I am working these days (those days now) and know it doesn’t apply.

 

Written 5/25/26, Posted 7/16/26, Job 509/~1070.