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The one thing I found disconcerting in Walking on Water was skipping round the Bible; the book was the structure into which Scripture fit rather than the other way round. Hear Me, O God, the next Brouwer devotional that I read, offers a more satisfying progression through Scripture, starting with Psalm 1 and ending with Psalm 150.

All of the psalms save four have fewer than 50 verses—which, along with a meditation, neatly fit my hair-grooming time slot. And their heart-rending pleas for God's deliverance and soaring testimonials to God's grace were balm for the soreness in my spirit.

At times Brouwer includes too many illustrations (each two-page meditation includes three or more anecdotes), even if they are like pearls well-strung together. But each meditation was engaging enough to keep me going. And many were profound enough for future reference. Perhaps the greatest gift that Hear Me, O God gave me, though, was the encouragement to move beyond the uncertainty in which psalmists lingered to the blessed assurance that God has already answered our prayers in his Son, who saves us in life as well as death.

"Worship and praise don't come naturally to us," Brouwer writes. "But when the Child lights up the darkness with his laughter, even the wild creatures in us want to dance!"

Someday I hope I won't have to squeeze devotions into the corners of my life. For now, however, Brouwer's books are a great way to get the day off and running.

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May 19 1997, Vol. 41, No. 6