MomentsSample

Dawn

Dawn. The dark before the light. The quiet before the noise. The stillness before the motion. A moment of total calm. Nothing but you and the present moment. There’s nothing like it. Mark chapter 1 tells us that Jesus rose early in the morning, went to an isolated place, and prayed.  His disciples later went looking for him and when they asked where he was, Jesus’ response was to get up and go. There’s something significant about that. In this day and age, we can be distracted 100 times before our feet ever touch the ground. You might be guilty of checking your phone first thing in the morning. Not only waking up to text messages, missed calls, emails, but now we have social media notifications. Our minds have been conditioned to think that we must respond to these alerts with urgency and if we don’t something bad will happen. As if our response to all of these things would somehow make us feel secure or satisfied.  We “go” before we ever get up.

When you wake up you are literally reminded that you have purpose because you still have a beating heart and breath in your lungs.  God has given you another day and essentially more time to live out His purpose. What if instead, we woke up and before ever opening our eyes we took a deep breath in and said, “Thank you, Lord” with a huge sigh of relief? Then as we ascend out of our beds, we find a quiet place by ourselves to just sit and be. This allows us to crowd out external distractions that keep us from being present. With this newfound undivided attention, draw near to God. Spend time talking to Him. Give God thanks for waking up to more life! Praise Him for his faithfulness. Let the quiet teach you something new. Marinade in the stillness of the morning before the commotion of the day.

Let’s practice paying attention on purpose at the very start of your day and carry that intention with you into your every moment.

Try this tomorrow: 1. Wake up a little earlier.  2. Get away from your distractions.  3. Draw near to God. See how these three things afford you fresh perspective on life.  Where did you sense God today?