For I am full of words, and the spirit within me compels me – Job 32:18

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 11, 2012): Job 32

I sometimes struggle with the difference between wants and needs – and my struggle travels in both directions. It maybe shouldn’t be surprising that sometimes my wants seem more like needs, but often I have noticed that my needs are downgraded to wants, or maybe even below that. So I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise when a drug addict passes up on necessary food to go after the drug. But sometimes the difference between a need and a want is hard to figure out for someone even on the outside of addiction.

And if it is hard to figure out what my needs and wants are in my physical life, it is really hard in my words. Both categories still exist. There are the things that I really need to say, and there things that I only want to say. But with my words, the things that I want to say are often the easier words to get through my lips.

What I want to say often lifts me up. What I want to say reveals my intelligence and puts me in a good light. Every day I hear people tell me about the great job that they have, or about their latest purchase, or how much education they have. People tell me how much they know about a subject or maybe the latest piece of gossip that they picked up from their coffee group. But all of these are really just things that they want to share. 

The problem with what I need to say is that they often mean more to someone else than they do to me. They are words of encouragement and love – and words of apology. And often they are words that are just simply hard to speak.

Elihu says that there are words that he needs to speak. But that isn’t really the truth. The truth is that they are merely words that he wants to speak. Elihu is tired of the pleadings of innocence from Job and the inaction of his friends. It is now time that he put all of them in their place. But the words that will proceed from his mouth just reflects what he wants the group to know.

I know it is an old saying, but it is one that we need to be reminded of. The world doesn’t need to know how much we know. That is only what we want the world to know. What every single person that we meet today needs to hear spoken from our lips is just how much we care.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 33

P.S. A big happy birthday to my little sister, Cheri. I love you – and miss you when we are not together.