Bookends

You Never Know Until You Try.

There’s a verse in the Bible that says we should rejoice and be glad in the new day the Lord has given us, but lately, though I’d like to say that I’ve felt that way, I haven’t. I’ve been trying desperately to, but I haven’t managed it in quite a long time. Each day brings more of the same: finding very few jobs that look even remotely feasible. It’s depressing to know that I’m not alone in this slow boat to nowhere. I know of someone who has said that she doesn’t really want at least 99% of the jobs she’s applying for but she knows that she has to have something. I think more of us have been there than we care to think about. May God help us all!

Trying desperately to figure a way out of this mess, I’ve been doing a lot of self-examination lately. It’s kind of what we do as one year draws to a close and another one dawns. We begin and end each year with introspection and, hopefully, prayer. Though I begin and end each day with prayer, I’ve almost always had my main prayer and Bible study time at night before going to sleep. I can think of several reasons: there just seems to be more time at night; my grandmother did it that way; and mainly because I started the practice as a teen when it became obvious that lying down at night didn’t mean that my mind got the message that it was time to sleep. That’s when it seemed that my mind was determined to do what it wanted to do, which was keep me awake thinking. It didn’t matter how much I tried to focus on relaxing and getting to sleep. It wasn’t happening. I found that praying and reading my Bible and devotional materials helped me calm the “what if’s” and “if only’s” that often tried to keep me awake.

As you can imagine, the “what if’s” and “if only’s” have gotten more frequent and insistent over this last year of post-graduation job hunting. The other day, facing another day of seemingly futile efforts to find a decent job, feeling hopeless, I found that “just” praying wasn’t calming me much. I grabbed my Bible and started reading and finally found enough peace to start the day. I didn’t get a job that day, but I found that “bookending” (is that a word?) my day with not just prayer but also with Bible reading made me feel a lot better. Duh!!!!

Putting books between bookends keeps the books upright, making their titles easier to read, and it protects them from damage. Likewise, “bookending” my day with Bible reading keeps me upright and helps protect me from Satan’s attacks. When they come, I’m much stronger and better equipped to fight. Scripture tells us that Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, beginning and end, so it makes sense to carry that into everyday life by reading the Bible in the morning and at night.

Sure, “just” praying helps, but it’s easy for prayer to turn into a meltdown session of worrying about things, telling God what I want and how unhappy I am with my situation instead of praising Him and thanking Him for countless blessings. Reading Scripture takes me more out of myself and helps me focus on Him, which is where my focus should be in the first place. Another lesson from this wilderness.