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In The Morning

             But I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble. (Psalm 59:16)

It’s been said that when you’re in the terrible toos, you shouldn’t make decisions. If you’re too tired, hungry, worried, anxious, distracted, overwhelmed, angry, sad, depressed, afraid, lonely, frustrated, overfed, desperate, stressed, satisfied, happy, etc., you shouldn’t make decisions. For some of us, that might mean we should never make decisions. This comes to mind as a principle because David specifically mentioned the morning, not all day long. Paul later wrote of rejoicing always, but that’s another discussion.

The background of the story is that David wrote it when King Saul was after him. He had something to worry about, but he made a good decision: to sing of God’s love in the morning. Did he get rest or a good night’s sleep the night before? Or did he spend the night struggling with everything? There’s no knowing, but if you read the rest of the lyrics, it doesn’t sound like he did. His mind seems to have bounced around like mine does:  Up, down, down further, spin 99 times in ten seconds, up, jump left, climb a cliff, fall off, hit Mach 3 in a climb…

In the morning, is when the sun comes up, when light begins to shine on things. It tends to be the time before “it” hits the fan. Most of my mornings don’t begin singing of God’s love. They usually begin with “Father, I need help.” The way I describe it is that my mental engine doesn’t want to start. It says, “Grr, grr,”  but I’m not grumbling. I’m just trying to get it going. I suspect the truth is that I wake up bored, unstimulated, unengaged, relaxed, ___ (add your own word). Admittedly, I’d rather not wake up to a Red Alert! or a “Danger, Will Robinson!” but those would at least give some direction to my mind beyond “Grr, grr.”

But the way I get going in the morning is basically habit. I stumble through my routine of dressing, putting my eyes in, collecting solar lights to recharge, making breakfast for myself and Grace, etc., and eventually check the verse of the day on a Bible ap and get to work on a blog post. There was a time when I woke to praise music.

Don’t misunderstand me – I don’t have a problem getting up at 6 am every day. But I think I need to (re)build a habit. How about you? 

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