{"id":13161,"date":"2022-12-30T23:25:11","date_gmt":"2022-12-31T03:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=13161"},"modified":"2025-08-20T13:35:39","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T17:35:39","slug":"praying-with-the-psalmists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=13161","title":{"rendered":"Praying with the Psalmists"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My pandemic project was writing a book about Psalms, and now the main work of writing it is finished.<\/p>\n

The book is about looking at the ten types of Psalms and using them as patterns for writing out own psalms.<\/p>\n

If I eventually get the book published, I want to have a website where people can post their own psalms to share with others who have read the book.<\/p>\n

For now, this blog post will have to do. People who have read the manuscript form of the book are encouraged to post their psalms in the comments.<\/p>\n

And I’ll start it off by writing a simple prayer of thanks for my big life change of 2022, using parallelism.<\/p>\n

Thanks for a Blessed Year<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lord, this year unexpectedly a dream came true,
\nI was surprised with a second chance at a job I’d long wanted.<\/p>\n

I’d wanted the job ever since I found out it existed,
\nthought it would be cool for about 14 years.
\nNine years ago, the job came open
\nand I watched every week for an announcement,
\nbut it took a year before I could apply,
\nand weeks beyond that before interviews happened.<\/p>\n

Then they put applicants through three interviews,
\nand I was only offered two.
\nI was so nervous with the in-person interview,
\nI got a dizzy spell.
\nIt was another half a year before I found out my dream didn’t happen,
\nand with a young person in the job, I thought it never would.<\/p>\n

I didn’t understand, but I made the best of it.
\nAfter all, in a branch, my job had more variety.
\nI liked my coworkers,
\nand I liked reading to kids.
\nI spent the time getting better at my job
\nand finding great joy in it.<\/p>\n

Surely it was all for the best,
\neven though I couldn’t understand?<\/p>\n

Then in March last year, I was sitting on an interview panel,
\nthinking how much better it is to ask the questions than answer,
\nthinking how much I loved my current job,
\nthinking how glad I was I’d never have to interview again.<\/p>\n

A couple hours later, I learned that my dream job was coming open again,
\nas the young selector was moving to Utah.
\nIn less than a blink of an eye,
\nI knew I’d be interviewing for the job,
\nthe dream job I’d always wanted,
\nthat I still wanted with all my heart.<\/p>\n

I was afraid the interview would be scary.
\nI didn’t want another dizzy spell.
\nI found practice questions and thought through my answers.
\nI did two practice interviews with others
\nand countless practice interviews by myself.
\nThe real interview happened about a month later.
\n(Only a month!)
\nIt was virtual, and two of the three asking questions were already friends.
\nI got to tell them why this job is right for me.<\/p>\n

And I got the job!
\nAnd yes, this is the right job for me at the right time.<\/p>\n

Looking back, I’m happy about those nine years at Fairfax branch,
\nthat I wouldn’t have had if things had gone how I wanted.<\/p>\n

But there are so many things right about doing the job now,
\nwith nine years more experience in the branches.<\/p>\n

And Lord, this builds my trust
\nand fills my heart with joy.
\nYou did grant me my heart’s desire,
\nat an even better time than when I first wanted it.<\/p>\n

I’m amazed and thankful,
\nand simply going to work gives me joy.<\/p>\n

Thank you for this blessing.
\nThank you for a dream come true.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My pandemic project was writing a book about Psalms, and now the main work of writing it is finished. The book is about looking at the ten types of Psalms and using them as patterns for writing out own psalms. If I eventually get the book published, I want to have a website where people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-praying-with-the-psalmists","category-thanksgiving-psalms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13161"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13166,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13161\/revisions\/13166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}