Job
11
– 12
Verse 11:20 interests me in how Zopar talks about the
wicked:
But the eyes of the wicked will grow dark as they lose hope;
they’ll find no escape, and in despair,
they’ll long only to breathe their last dying breath.
All
these are great assumptions and feelings, but none are really fully grounded in
the situation. All his friends assume they understand what is going on and each
seem to have an ever increasing misunderstanding of what is really happening. I
know when life happens outside of what I think it should be I go back to what
may or may not be the underlying reason.
A
good recent example was the sale of our farm a few years ago. It was all on, we
would have been debt free at our peak and would have put any free cash into the
building Board n Bike was in. The deal fell through after months of “counting
my “chickens” before they hatched.” I started dissecting what I did wrong and
why God would have allowed that deal to fall trough. I looked at every sin and
mistrust of God and immediately assumed it was because I was still buying
lottery tickets and not having faith God would provide in abundance.
Five
years later I look back and realize it was His plan, since it had us
considering selling the property I was sure was perfect for our “retirement
home” but has it planned for the right time. See two things that needed to
happen, first was money management. If I had paid off the $576k without
learning how to budget, life would have been miserable quickly. Also, if we had
dumped the remaining capital into the building in Buford, we would have an
empty monolith, costing us money. Instead God had the perfect plan and I just
assumed it was a spanking when the deal fell through.
Verse
12:12 speaks to me as I grow older:
But you tell
me, “With age comes wisdom,
and a long life grants understanding.”
Often I think I am more a “wise guy” than a
wise counselor. I wish wisdom would just happen, but it appears to have missed
me in most cases. I am still learning by the “school of hard knocks.” It a
common fallacy in most societies, that as we grow old we gain wisdom. Honestly
if we fail to learn the Biblical meaning of our “hard knocks.” We just ramble
though life without gaining insight. Debt was one for me. I have amassed a
tremendous amount of debt twice, once was cleaned out quickly with a home sale,
the other has been a long row to hoe, but has been a learning experience. The
problem was the quick fix just gave me increased faith without any correcting
measures.
B