Steve's Letter: "That dog won't hunt!"

As you perhaps know, I'm an early riser. I generally get up about four in the morning.

Despite what some of you think, being able to get up early in the morning is a gift from God.

When I was a young pastor, I read that John Wesley got up at four in the morning and I decided that I could do it too. If I did that, I might be as spiritual and as effective as John Wesley.

(I know, I know. I was very young.)

I did it for about two weeks, but gave it up. My counseling ministry took a major hit...It really isn't appropriate to snore when someone is telling you the reasons they are thinking about suicide. Not only that. I began to fall asleep during my own sermons.

Well, then you could join the rest of the congregation.

Very funny.

So I gave up being spiritual by getting up early. I slept in like a normal person and staggered into my day with caffeine and perseverance. But I always, in my heart, thought it would be really good if I, like John Wesley, could get up at four in the morning.

And then, about 20 years ago, I woke up refreshed at four o'clock A.M. How about that?

At first I thought that it was my sin, but I had not sinned more than when I getting up at 8 A.M. I felt refreshed and I was wide awake. So I got my stuff together and headed for the church where I took a shower and shaved...and decided that, since I was already up, I might try praying.

That time was incredible.

(Key Life board members, please take note that in those days I had a shower in my office and I have no shower in my office at Key Life. I'm not suggesting that you install a shower in my office here, but I did want you to know how much I have suffered for Jesus by having an office without a shower.)

I don't want to make this sound too good because the rest of you will start trying to get up early and you'll screw it up for those of us who do get up early. However, we do get to see some incredible sunrises, nobody is around to mess with our heads or our time, and there is a direct correlation between how good the coffee tastes and the hour you drink it, to wit, the earlier the better. Aside from the time of prayer, it is kind of nice to get up in the morning and, at least for those first hours, to bask in the fact that one has not messed anything up so badly that it can't be fixed. Doing bad stuff that can't be fixed is almost exclusively something that happens after nine o'clock in the morning.

And so, for the last 20 years and without an alarm clock, I've climbed out of bed at around four in the morning.

That is, until two weeks ago. And frankly, it's driving me nuts.

One time John Wesley (and he started all of this getting up at a crazy hour stuff) was quite worried that God had withdrawn His hand from Wesley's ministry and prayed for God to show him (i.e. Wesley's) His (God's) love and favor.

Shortly after that prayer, Wesley was riding his horse to a speaking engagement and was accosted by a gang of ruffians. One of them threw a rock at Wesley and knocked him off his horse. That's when Wesley got on his knees and praised God because God had revealed His favor and love with the persecution he had just received.

Can we talk?

I'm not into ruffians and rocks. That's way above my pay level. But I do know what the Bible says: "Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall" (1 Corinthians 10:12) and "Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall" (Proverbs 16:18).

Just so you know, I've been getting up much later of late. At first I thought it was my purity as in the sleep of the pure or I was just plain old and tired from standing for Jesus with such zeal. Then I had an attack of sanity and realized that I wasn't altogether that pure and that, frankly, my zeal has been no more now than when I was getting up at four.

There is, of course, one other possible reason I'm sleeping later. Could be that God got tired of my self-righteousness. There is a degree of...well...uh...joy in looking down on all those less committed, less righteous and less Christian people who sleep late in the morning and/or want to. I could be a serial killer, a liar and a heretic; but, I get up early in the morning and that ought to count for something. I started to think that getting up in the morning covered a multitude of sins (rather than love as in 1 Peter 4:8).

Could be that God said, "Buster, that dog won't hunt" and then gave me a supernatural sleeping pill, thus robbing me of the one area in my life where I can be better than others.

I hate it.

But before you judge me, you play that game too. We do something really bad and very quickly we try to do something good to make up for the bad, thinking that we covered it and things are equal with God again. If we do something really, really good, we think that it gives us a pass with a couple of free sins. The trick, of course, is for the good to outweigh the bad so that God will love us and our lives will be blessed.

Dear friend, that is from the pit of hell and smells like smoke.

You and I aren't that good. In fact, if there were a correlation between our goodness and blessing...there would be no blessing. We deserve His wrath, judgment and condemnation. The love, grace and mercy we've experienced is because of the blood and righteousness of Jesus, not because we kept everything in balance.

In fact, if we really understood that the Gospel has nothing to do with scales (i.e. that God has thrown the scales away), we could turn the world upside down. We would be such a powerful force for God that nothing would be able to stop us from making a major impact on the world.

Okay, Lord, I confessed. Now can I start getting up early again? The coffee was so much better when I did.

Actually--and this is true--for the last two mornings (I'm writing this in April and you're reading it in June, so it may not continue), I've been awakened by Him at four.

Is that cool or what?

And if you loved Jesus as much as I do and were as committed and as spiritual as I am, you would get up at...

...uh...sorry. Just joking.

I repent.

So I'm throwing away the scales. He has.

You should too!

He asked me to remind you.

In His Grip,

Steve