Is It Morning Yet?

Are you a morning person? A night person? Experts in chronobiology, the science of body time, tell us that the body clock is a real phenomenon. We didn't need chronobiologists to tell us that now did we? I happen to be a morning person. I feel better; I have more energy; my mental outlook is brighter; I get so much done in the morning. When I was teaching, I could do a half day's work before leaving for school! I still arise early though it really isn't necessary. I know, I know...this is annoying beyond words to you night people out there. You are, for all practical purposes, unconscious until about 11:00 am. You secretly despise the cheery early birds. Your energy level builds throughout the day, and you are at peak performance at 9:00 pm when we morning people are dozing on the couch!

Psalm 5:3 says "My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up." Does this mean that God favors hearing from us in the "morning"? Maybe God is a "morning person"! No, no, no. That cannot be. Did you know that according to www.webexhibits. org, the Jewish calendar day begins at sunset or when three medium-sized stars become visible? You could go by Jewish time, and 10:00 pm would be REALLY early, perhaps comparable to 4:00 am, Gentile Standard Time! Or you could think of it this way, whenever you best spend your time with the Lord is morning somewhere. It is morning to God when He hears your voice, you are directing your prayer to him, and you are looking up expectantly to hear from Him. The point is not the time of day. Just do it. God is always ready for you to begin your "day" with Him.

Ahhhh!

Ahhhh...a new year. What a great feeling to start new calendars! Throw those old ones out! Think of them as symbols of things past. I love sunny January with its crisp air that brings a feeling of new hope--hope that I can get organized and maybe keep up this year and hope that I will reach those goals, read those books, accomplish those tasks! I'll make those phone calls, write those letters, organize those snapshots! I'll get my priorities in order, pray more, study my Bible as never before! Somewhere in the back of my brain lodges the nagging truth that I won't be able to do it all again this year, but that doesn't discourage me. I think it is a healthy thing to have hope, to have goals. Perhaps this is how the Apostle Paul felt when he penned these immortal words in Philippians 3:13 and 14, "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended (arrived): but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

Since the creation, time has been organized into segments--days, months, seasons, years, and yes, even millennia! I think God knew that we would need to start over from time to time. Each new year is a time to realize that we haven't arrived, to look back (briefly), try to learn from our mistakes, and then forget those failures. Start over, reach forth, and press on!