Morning and the rhythm of life

Morning has arrived and the rhythm of life begins again. Given the fact that it is Tuesday means that our alarm clock sounded the wake up call at 6:15 am. It only disturbs our sleep on Tuesday and Wednesday – unless I forget to cancel it for the remaining days, which happens too many times. Margaret begins her preparation to leave by 7 so she can baby-sit our two grandbabies thus enabling our daughter, Tracy, to continue to work part-time in her chosen profession. And the rhythm of life continues …

My “schedule” is slightly different because my rhythms are different. I’m not sure when my “stupid” internal clock got set, but it has been this why for years. I sleep for about 4 hours, then I am up and awake for 1 to 2 hours, then back to bed for 2 more hours of sleep … then my morning starts. Frustrating is a good word for this crazy schedule. Those very early mornings does give me time to reflect, pray and read – the house is very quite, there isn’t any sports on television, the morning paper hasn’t been delivered – and so it is just me and the Lord. And the rhythm of life continues …

John Wesley was fond of rising early in the morning. I’m not sure what time he got up, but I’ve heard 4:30 am often enough that I started to believe it and even quote it. A United Methodist Bishop was once asked if he followed John Wesley’s ritual of rising early. He responded, “My dear lady, God isn’t up until 9 am and I’ve had my first cup of coffee!” And the rhythm of life continues …

Each of us discovers our own rhythms for the morning. A colleague of mine loves to rise early (I know since I have roomed with him at different times over the years), go and run 5 miles, come in and have a cup of coffee (that he starts to brew as he heads out for his morning run), and then works out with some weight training. THEN, as he has stated in times past, his day begins. And the rhythm of life continues …

Some rhythms include rushing the children out the door to catch the school bus; grabbing a piece of toast and a cup of coffee as they rush forth to get to work; sitting and watching one of the morning news programs and reading the morning paper; taking a leisurely morning walk to be embraced by the awaking world once again; or, just rolling over in bed, pulling up the comforter and going back to sleep. One house that I was fond of visiting always smelled like fresh baked bread because the lady of that house had the rhythm of baking a loaf of bread every morning. What a pleasant rhythm of life … and it probably would still be continuing to this day if she was still alive …

Some rhythms start with “kicking” on the computer to discover what e-mails have been sent since last evening and/or checking ones Facebook account to see what other people are up to. Some rhythms, like one gentleman in our subdivision, starts by doing laps in the community pool long before the water is heated by the rising Sun. Everybody’s rhythm of life is different – one isn’t better than another, they are just different.

A pastor that I know says that he likes to “get to church before anyone else so that he can be there as the church wakes up for a new day.” Regardless of the way the rhythm of life begins or the why behind the particular rhythm that each of us have adopted one thing we should remember and that is our life belongs to God – he owns it and by the act of grace he gives us the privilege of taking ownership of its rhythm. May it be true that as we live out our rhythm of life we include him in the process by allowing him to kiss our soul gently in the morning as it awakes once again to embrace the gift of a new day.

Quote for today: Someone once said, "There's nothing quite so early as morning." Victor R. Ferraris