My Morning

I remember getting up extra early with dad and making the rounds of Champion Paper Company park, riding on the step-side of the Chevy, or sitting next to him and learning how to shift the gears of the truck.

Most days I seldom use an alarm clock as my mind just wakes up every morning around 5 a.m. or so, or at the very least I wake up when I tell myself the night before what my morning schedule needs to be like! Although, the older I get that time changes every single day. It’s just that I need about 6 hours of sleep so I can time my morning based on when evening sleep began.

Everyone else can sleep as long as they want, but I generally always awake early. There’s something about sitting on the porch with a cup of coffee watching the world come alive. I’ve watched wildlife move around me in the still of the new dawn. I’ve listened to birds start to welcome the morning with their trill. I’ve watched neighbors hastily get in their cars and drive away.

Back in the day when mornings were not as much a favorite as they are now, I remember my granddad and his morning routine. Up around 3 a.m. or so, he would brew coffee and cook toast until it was charbroiled. He would scrape most of the black off the hardened and dried toast and sit at the kitchen table just enjoying his morning, dipping the toast in his coffee. Sometimes he would go and do his fishing chores (check the trot-lines, ready his boat, etc.), head over to the pasture and check on a project, or his cows, and other mornings he would amble around the streets of his neighborhood for several hours until the sky was blue and the sun was on its way over the tree line. He would go home and grandmother would cook a real breakfast and they would start their day.

Of course, after sixteen years in Alaska, I grew used to morning (with the sun) changing radically every day. On the shortest day of the year which is when Winter begins (Dec 21 or so), the sun would arise somewhere around 10 a.m. – and all of you late sleepers cheer! This just meant I was up for about 5 hours of dark before the day star rose over the Chugach Mountains. On the longest day of the year when Summer begins (June 21 or so), the sun would arise around 3 a.m. or so. You could actually play golf all night in the twilight, or read a book on the porch with natural light at 1 a.m.

Here’s my thought today. There is a hint of a thought that suggests we are our most vulnerable when we sleep. We have no awareness of our surrounding. Our minds prowl down the hallway of nightmares and forbidden thought. It’s in the time of Sleep that we are more easily a victim. Our fears are exacerbated by the things we cannot see and only imagine. You know, that thing that hides under the bed, in the closet or scratches at the window pane.

However, it is also the peace we get from knowing our world is in order, and all the things of life are handled. Again, David speaks of this. Your night rest comes from the fact that you are dwelling in peace and safety.

I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; For You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety. (Psalms 4:8 NKJV)

Jesus was often up in the early morning hours. In the temple He taught the people that came to hear him, He would pray before the sun arose, and He gave some insightful lessons to His disciples that were with him as they started their day.

Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him. When they found Him, they said to Him, “Everyone is looking for You.” (Mark 1:35-37 NKJV)

Imagine him becoming aware of the responsibility of the day that was still before him. Can you guess why the early morning was important to him? It was his “me” time. Quiet. Alone with the day. Prayer. Contemplation. Did I say quiet?

The Old Testament is full of early morning events – Abraham stands in a place to meet God (Genesis 19:27), Jacob builds a memorial where he had his nighttime vision (Genesis 28:18), Moses stands before Pharaoh (Exodus 8:20), Joshua goes to war (Joshua 8:10), David leaves his sheep behind and goes to where Goliath is (1 Samuel 17:20), and King Darius rushes to check on Daniel after his night in the lion’s den (Daniel 6:19), of whom, when he was called forth, Daniel says, “O King, Live Forever!”

What I take to heart is that I can find Him early in the morning before the cacophony of the day takes over and my life picks up speed. I know He is always there for me, but there is something special about those early morning hours.

This is my personal prep time for the busy day ahead and How I Love This Time… How I Need This Time!