I thought about titling this post: How to Separate the Pages of a Book that Have Been Stuck Together with Syrup for More than a Year.
But I didn’t.
I was so excited to start back to BSF today. BSF stands for Bible Study Fellowship and it’s an intense (and wonderful) study that I’ve been in for four years now.
The day went well except for one thing. When it was time to open our Bibles, I suddenly remembered a task I’d been putting off for . . . oh . . . more than a year.
See, the summer before last there was a spill.
I honestly don’t remember whose fault it was or if it was syrup (probably the kids’) or highly sugared coffee (definitely mine).
I didn’t clean it up right away.
And since it dried not-too-sticky, I didn’t worry about it much.
Until . . . August of 2011 when I was in a leader’s training time and they asked us to turn to a certain beginning book in the Bible . . . and I couldn’t.
Not because I was overcome with emotion, but because I literally . . . couldn’t.
My pages were stuck together. Not so much like glue, more like cement.
I think I pretended my nose was running and dug around for a Kleenex in my purse until the moment had passed. I told myself that I really needed to get home and clean up that (less than two months old at that time) mess.
But . . . y’know . . . our study last year was in Acts, which is in the New Testament.
Totally the other end of the Bible.
In the not-touched-by-syrup-or-coffee-or-whatever end.
So . . . I didn’t think about it much anymore.
Until today. Today . . . at BSF. Which I’ve known for months was going to be a study of . . . Genesis.
Y’know, the very first book of the Bible. The most super-glued pages of all.
So as I tried to quietly tear the pages apart that I needed, I realized I finally had to deal with this thing I’d been putting off for over a year now.
Not that I really felt like coming home today to spend twenty minutes gently wiping with a wet cloth, then attempting to tear, and finally using a steak knife to get the pages unstuck.
I do wonder if there will ever come a day when it’s natural for me to deal with a mess simply because it’s a mess and not because it’s a mess that keeps me from doing something I really want to do.
Why did it take twenty minutes?
Because I had to go page by page all the way through Joshua. That’s right. Page 239.
Too funny, might be time to upgrade to a new Bible. My current one is a hardback one and the front cover recently became detached. Last Sunday I think I dropped the cover at least twice during Church, maybe I should mosey over to Amazon……….
You are such a more noble woman than me, I will admit it, even though it is awful, I would have just gotten myself another bible, and thrown the stuck pages one up in the attic (because I can’t make myself throw God’s word into the garbage).
“I do wonder if there will ever come a day when it’s natural for me to deal with a mess simply because it’s a mess and not because it’s a mess that keeps me from doing something I really want to do.”
This is me! At some point I hope my life will be disciplined enough to deal with important things, not just the tyranny of the urgent.
I guess I should go clean up that spilled jello. You know, even though it isn’t mopping day.
I’m just relieved to know that I’m not the only one to have stuck my Bible together with a coffee stain! :o) I discovered, while at home group (of course!), that I’d stuck together much of the end half of the NT. I’m at the point where I will merrily deal with any amount of mess if there’s something else I ought to be doing. This morning’s trick was spending 15 mins demolishing the clean laundry mountain when I *should* have been making my lunch, eating breakfast and getting out the door for work! Hmmm……
I am so thankful I stumbled upon this blog. Reading it is like reading a page of my own story a lot of the time. My hubby and I argue about my slobishness all.the.time. Its all we argue about. So, I am hoping to gather some ideas and apply it to my home. <3 Thank you for sharing your process!!
Do you wanna not feel so bad? Atleast your book was salvageable. My daughter had a book and left it on the table. Instead of making her take it to her room, I put it on top of the wire grated turtle tank. I kept looking at that book every day for 2 months thinking I should really make her finish reading it or put it away… then one day I noticed water inside the cover… not good. Apparently water from the turtle tank evaporates (duh) and the book was a natural absorbing agent of that water (duh again) and now it was growing mold on every page because the book was open 1/2 way and face down over the tank. Oh, yes, there was lots of mold! And to top the cake, it was a public library book (something I didn’t realize). I have since removed the grate so I can’t use it as a shelf anymore and stop the clutter there. Nothing like needing to buy a moldy book to teach a person a lesson about doing stuff right away!!!
So glad you were able to rescue your Bible.
Matthew 6:34 – Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
If you think about it, “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” is really just a fancy way of saying “Waiting until I NEED to do it”. : )
“I do wonder if there will ever come a day when it’s natural for me to deal with a mess simply because it’s a mess and not because it’s a mess that keeps me from doing something I really want to do.”
The answer to that is No. It is a part of the eternal vigilance that comes with combating natural sin. Just like there is never a time when overweight people can stop watching what they eat once they lose it all.
@ Victoria: I’m the same way about Bibles. Most of mine are actually Dumpster rescues’. (I live in an apartment complex, and you would not BELIEVE the things people throw away when they’re moving. I have trained myself to leave most of the stuff right there UNLESS it’s something that I really NEED, and ‘free’ is a great price…LOL. However, I can’t bear to leave Bibles in a dumpster. I DO donate most of them to Goodwill or other thrift shops, but if I couldn’t do that I would rescue them anyway. It’s one of my ‘bad habits’ that I will probably never be able to break.
Interestingly, I read this just before reading your post:
http://zenhabits.net/zen-work/
The part that seems to have resonated with you, and most of these other lovely commenters:
“I do wonder if there will ever come a day when it’s natural for me to deal with a mess simply because it’s a mess and not because it’s a mess that keeps me from doing something I really want to do.”
I was just ruminating on it myself, as I have a similar sticking point.
“These problems have one simple cause: we’re holding on.
The work itself isn’t stressful — it’s just action that’s taken or that needs to be taken. It’s our reaction to the work that causes the stress: our holding on to a wish that things were different.”
Today I really wish I didn’t have to cut up a giant carpet that got wet in the basement, was taken outside to dry, then got rained on and soaked more, then got moldy before it could dry again, and is now on the kitchen table because we went away for the weekend and I brought it back inside because it was finally mostly dry and I didn’t want it to get soaked again, and now it is waiting for me to do it, and preventing me from having a place to put the groceries I need to shop for later today.
You’re in good company. I don’t resent the work – I resent that I have to do it at all. Thanks for an illuminating post yourself.
I see you’ve got an iPhone there… Here comes your solution:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bible/id282935706?mt=8
I’ve been able to donate or give bibles away to people who need them. For more motivation see this post by another Christian blogger:
http://www.jonacuff.com/stuffchristianslike/2012/09/suddenly-realizing-you-own-fourteen-bibles/
=)