Reading the book of Job. Gosh, I really enjoy reading it - it's so real, and the questions Job raise are very thought-provoking.

And read Psalm 23. Hon Loong, my shepherd many years ago told me about the background behind Psalm 23. David wrote this psalm about the Lord making him lie down in green pastures and leading him besides quiet waters... when he was on the run from King Saul.

Running for his life, hiding in dark and dank caves, and constantly battling for his life.

It was in such a situation that David expressed his confidence in God's goodness.

Job and David. Both were in very tough times, but both expressed their confidence in God's goodness - even when His goodness was very hard to see.

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So it is with our quiet times. I've been trying to help a younger Christian experience God through reading the Bible and praying, but he has been telling me he finds it hard to make sense of what the Bible says.

Haha... I remember I also found it hard to make sense of the Bible when I first started trying to have a regular devotional time. On its own, it's straightforward to read for information - which is not bad in itself. But how is it relevant to my day-to-day living?

Job himself put it so well:

 3 If only I knew where to find him; 
       if only I could go to his dwelling!

[...]

8 "But if I go to the east, he is not there; 
       if I go to the west, I do not find him.

 9 When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; 
       when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him.

 10 But he knows the way that I take; 
       when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.

 11 My feet have closely followed his steps; 
       I have kept to his way without turning aside.

 12 I have not departed from the commands of his lips; 
       I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.

That was an attitude I learnt from Job... when God is hard to find, persevere in seeking Him with all your heart. Continue to read the Bible faithfully, and be faithful in prayer. Even if you see nothing but darkness, and even though you know that your heart and conscience are right before God... just trust Him.

It may be possible that you may have to wait your whole life to feel God's presence real in your life. Wait anyway. Even Mother Teresa struggled almost her whole life with constant temptations to doubt God's existence. But on her deathbed, she whispered as she went to sleep, "Jesus, I love you."

Or more to ourselves, we go about our daily lives, and frankly, there are days where everything just seems so... ordinary. Where is God in the mundane everyday? When you have to work OT till 11.30 pm, and you are dead tired?

In the Narnian story, Prince Caspian, Lucy tried to get her siblings to follow Aslan, when he appeared to Lucy to show them the way across the chasm. But her older siblings and Trumpkin the agnostic dwarf couldn't see him. So they didn't want to go on a wild-goose chase.

But Lucy told them, "Aslan's right here." "Where? We don't see him." "I tell you, he's right here. I can see him!" So Edmund decided to trust Lucy, and followed the unseen Aslan. And the others gradually got up and followed too, even Trumpkin (though he did it out of loyalty). And as they went up and down the various paths, eventually Edmund saw Aslan right in front of them, and so did the other siblings and Trumpkin the agnostic.

Likewise, God is as near to us as the air we breathe. But we have to learn to see Him through the eyes of faith. And learning always takes time. "We walk by faith, not by sight."