I had three jobs in college: I worked at a theater, as a student driver, and as a waitress at the Wooden Shoe Restaurant. The Wooden Shoe was a breakfast place known for its huge cinnamon rolls and twelve-egg omelet challenge—if you could finish the whole omelet, you got a T-shirt. (I never tried.) The loyal customers tended to be mainly from the oatmeal generation.

Tuesdays ran at a different rhythm and my manager definitely did not enjoy them. On Tuesdays, residents from a nearby nursing home would roll in on a big bus. They sipped their coffee, asked for extra brown sugar, and rewarded service with gumball-machine-sized tips. I just thought perhaps they hadn’t kept up with best practices on tipping and didn’t know any better. One day as I closed up, I was asked to prefill the next day’s little brown sugar cups. Motivated, and figuring I could work twice as fast and do more than necessary, I set to work filling those cups. In my mind, I would be making my tattooed, Harley-Davidson-riding manager proud. So I filled up twice as many brown sugars as she asked for.

The next day, my manager stormed into the restaurant. “Whooo filled up all those extra brown sugar containers?” She glanced at me.

“I did,” I confessed, wondering why she was upset at my willingness to go the extra mile.

“If you prefill too many brown sugars, they go bad. They’ll get all dry and stale, and it’s a waste. Don’t do that again.”

Apparently working ahead to save yourself the trouble the next day doesn’t always pan out, even when you have good intentions. In this case, my efforts mirrored the biblical story of the Israelites trying to save manna for the next day’s meal when God had clearly said He would provide their food daily. When the Israelites tried to save extra, they ended up with rotten manna the next day (see Exodus 16:1-31).

It sure seems like a good principle: if you work ahead, you can take the day off tomorrow. In some situations, this is a very wise thing to do. But I have also learned that some rhythms with God don’t align with that mentality. Just like manna, God gave us His Word to be savored daily, and any attempt to store up God’s Word on Sunday so that we can slide our way through the rest of the week without effort is a lesson in futility. We end up lacking the very nutrients, the nourishment we need daily to walk according to God’s plan for us. Jesus taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11, ESV), suggesting He took it for granted we would spend time with God every day. And unlike with chocolate cake, we cannot ever overindulge on God’s Word. No time in Scripture is ever wasted. There are some days when all we get is a small portion, and God graciously uses one small verse to powerfully speak to our hearts. And there are some days when we receive bountifully.

Let’s be honest. The everyday craziness of life—the continuous needs of family, frustrations in our relationships, bills we hadn’t planned for—distracts our hearts and minds from hearing God’s voice. And there are so many things in this world that we enjoy chasing after. While they bring temporary distraction and even fun, they cannot compete with relating to God our Father. When I choose to daily set my face toward learning more about Him, I am never disappointed. God graciously left us a road map to life, the most important book in all the world, the book that enables us to navigate every twist and turn. The Bible is rarely far from us physically, but it’s often far from our hearts. We often choose to do anything but spend time in God’s Word. But let’s face it—we’re never going to stop hearing the incessant call of the world telling us that we will and should find meaning and satisfaction in our families, our health, or perhaps our dream jobs. Yet as we live through our next challenge, climb that corporate ladder, or observe the havoc that sinful humanity can unleash, again and again we find ourselves wondering about that void in our hearts that can only be filled by our Creator. Is this it? we wonder. Our spirits feel restless, unsatisfied until we access the treasure that God has already given us, the Bible. The Bible points us to the ultimate treasure, the ultimate prize: Christ Himself.

God promises His Word will never return void (see Isaiah 55:11). It will surely have an impact on us and on others. That’s a promise from God. It is only in His Word that we will find truth that remains through all generations and can personally give us hope. When we set aside time to read and meditate on the Scriptures, God will transform us as we learn more about Him! Over time, we will learn how to love both God and others on a deeper level. God’s mercies do exist, and they are waiting to be discovered in His Word.

Adapted from Chasing Sacred: Learn How to Study Scripture to Pursue God and Find Hope in Him by Mikella Van Dyke, releasing in September 2024.   ‘;