A Textbook Life

You are born. 

At the beginning, there are formalities, introductions, and greetings as you get to know your new surroundings and familiarize yourself with the faces around you. 

Welcome to your first day of your new course, called Life. 

You're issued a textbook with no marks, perfect crisp pages, and a smell that assures you no one else has had this book but you.  You're told that you're allowed to make notes in the margins and highlight things that are important. 

This is your book now.

You skim through it wondering how you'll ever cover this much material, but you begin reading something interesting and forget about how vast and scary the whole thing seems.

Your first assignment is pretty tough, but the more you get used to the format of your book, the easier it becomes.   

Here comes a pop quiz.  You sure didn't see that coming.  And sometimes you stay up all night studying chapter 11 when the next day's test is over chapter 12.  It happens.  You're doing fine.

The grading scale is flexible.  You just have to stay after class periodically and meet with the Teacher.  He is a fair and forgiving teacher.  He helps you along because He wants to see you succeed.  No matter what kind of student you are today.  Or tomorrow.  His office hours are 24/7.  He'll be there helping. 

Don't try to skip to the back of the book to study the glossary of terms.  They won't make sense until they're applied to the lessons you're currently learning.  You don't have to take short cuts.  You're doing just fine. 

The older you get, more things make sense.  You begin to make meaningful connections between one chapter and the next.  And you begin to see that those who have been hanging around longer than you seem to know a lot of the answers.  Listen to them as they share with you what they have learned.

Some days your book will feel dreadfully heavy and it will weigh you down.  You'll overcome. 

Some days you forget it so you share someone else's book and form a study group.  What a relief. 

After awhile, the book doesn't look new, some pages are wrinkled or torn.  But it works just fine.     

At times, you may feel so confident that you're convinced you could teach yourself everything you need to know.  But you can't.  Listen to your teacher as He gives you guidance along the way.  Talk through your questions and uncertainties.  He may not always respond, but He is always listening. 

You may tune Him out on occasion, but always tune back in.

Not everything you need to know is in the book.  Learn to read between the pages.

You're doing just fine.

And don't worry.  Life's an open book exam.