DiscipleGeek

There is a temporal anomaly surrounding my house.

I believe this because every time we leave the house we are always at least 5 minutes late for whatever event we’re trying to attend. This happens whether we start getting everyone ready hours or just a few minutes beforehand.

This field must be generated by children. I’m certain it didn’t happen like this until I was a parent and other parents have commented on similar effects happening to their house as well.

I’m hoping that someday The Doctor will stop by to correct this phenomenon.

I highly dislike being late. One of my common jokes with my wife is that arriving 15 minutes before the event starts is actually arriving on time. This hasn’t happened in a while and I hate it. I know that when I’m late it often inconveniences other people, and sends the inaccurate message that I don’t consider their time as important as my own. This also applies to worship services and Bible study. By being late, I’m not showing respect to my Father in Heaven who has sacrificed so much for me.

It also gives me the reputation of being unreliable. If there is one thing I remember that my dad taught me from a very young age it’s that having a good reputation is vital.

I want to apologize to everyone that I have shown disrespect to by being late. It is not intentional. I promise. I would start naming people but I’d run out ink or forget someone; plus since this is a public forum I would prefer to handle the direct apologies in person. If you desire a personal apology, please approach me privately and I will be happy to oblige.

Most importantly, since I’m a guy and this is a problem, I want to fix it.

I know it’s going to take a concerted effort by both my wife and I. Christina already does things like laying out clothes and getting diaper/toy bags ready ahead of time. I think the main problem, especially for morning events is that neither of us are morning people. That coupled with a colicky baby that stays up half the night makes getting up earlier very difficult.

I know that there are some variables that I’m not able to control that will get better as time goes on, like a baby that nurses almost constantly, but there’s got to be something else we can do. The question is: what?

I know that there are people that have dealt with this issue before, so what did you do that helped most?

Proverbs 12:15
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes,
But he who heeds counsel is wise.

It was at precisely 6:54 on Wednesday morning when the blank page began filling. He woke with a start as his alarm blared its 7 o’clock wake up call. Thanks to his clever planning he knew he had another 6 minutes before it was actually 7 o’clock and staggered across the room to hit the snooze button. He then crawled back into bed to sleep a few more minutes.

The filling of the page paused until the alarm went off again. With agitation at this second interruption of his precious sleep, he stomped across the room and hit the dismiss button. Once again the page paused in its work.

His second alarm went off at 7:24 a.m. Finally he dragged himself into the bathroom to perform his morning ablutions. He briefly considered grabbing a bowl of cereal before heading out, but opted instead to grab a biscuit from his normal breakfast haunt.

With a seasoned grace, he managed to avoid any eye contact and greetings of each of his coworkers as he squeaked in to his cubicle at 8:06, one minute shy of getting written up for being late. His first task of the morning: check Facebook. He fidgeted while the browser loaded and grumbled to himself about how tired he was. Nothing new was interesting on his feed, but he spent most of the rest of the morning refreshing the page anyway.

Ten minutes before lunchtime he convinced himself to close the browser. In a drowsy haze, he completed about half his daily reports with lackluster effort before running out to the local sandwich shop and getting his combo biggie sized. His lunch went down without event, unless you count the attractive young lady that gave him a brief smile. However since his last relationship ended on a sour note, he merely nodded as he walked past her. He wouldn’t make that mistake again for a long time.

Once again avoiding his coworkers, he shuffled back to his cubicle and yawned. He persuaded himself to finish his reports so that he could spend the rest of the afternoon working on the novel he’d been writing since college. He finished them as quickly as possible with minimal exertion. He hadn’t written in his novel for over three years, but today was going to be the day. First, he wanted to check Facebook…

A couple of hours later, a shriek echoed across the floor from the cubicle next to him. “N-no!” Sobbing gasps made any of the rest of the possible conversation unintelligible.

He glanced up at the sudden outburst and momentarily considered checking on her, but figured someone else would take care of it. Indeed, he heard footsteps seconds later and couldn’t help but overhear that she had lost her mother to a tragic accident.

He decided he was too tired to step over to the next cubicle and get involved. Instead he posted a vague status update about a prayer request for his coworker and considered his work done, hoping the rest of the day would go by quicker than the beginning.

The end of the work day dragged its feet, but it inevitably arrived. With a tired protest he stood and made his way back to his apartment. After impatiently waiting for his canned soup to heat up in the microwave, he juggled the boiling hot liquid to his couch and thought about heading to Bible Study that night, but realized he was just too exhausted. He flipped on his TV and the evening passed with a blur.

He collapsed into his bed at exactly 3:28 a.m. With an inexplicable sense of dissatisfaction and vague desire for a greater fulfillment, he drifted off to a restless sleep. The page ceased filling, leaving the way for the next blank page to begin its work tomorrow.

We start each day with a blank page. We choose how it is written by our attitude and actions. How often does ours end up like his?

The man-made divisions of Biblical books into chapters, headings, and verses creates an interesting phenomenon. Jon Acuff calls them edge verses. Whatever it’s called, these verses end up on the peripheral of our study and can often be ignored even though they can teach some powerful lessons. In bible class last night I noticed a great one at the end of the account of John the Baptist’s beheading and the beginning of the feeding of the 5,000.

Matthew 14:12-14
New King James Version (NKJV)
12 Then his disciples came and took away the body and buried it, and went and told Jesus.

13 When Jesus heard it, He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by Himself. But when the multitudes heard it, they followed Him on foot from the cities. 14 And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick.

Jesus, upon hearing that His cousin John the Baptist was murdered decides He needs some time to reflect, mourn, or pray. Whatever His reason, it’s obvious He wants to be alone. He heads off into a place that people don’t typically go and is followed by the people that He’s been teaching.

But notice one thing.

Despite the fact that he sought out some “me time” he saw the need to help these people and did it. He didn’t let His personal needs and emotional state interfere with the Lord’s work.

That said, once he took care of the multitude, He was still given time to pray alone.

Matthew 14:22-23
New King James Version (NKJV)

22 Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. 23 And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there.

God calls us as Christians to be greater than we ever realized we could be. Sometimes this means we become exhausted mentally, physically and emotionally. Don’t let your daily struggles keep you from doing the Lord’s work. God will give us the rest we need, it just may not be exactly when we expect it.