Pastor’s Point: God Is Not a Morning Person

One of the things I have learned about myself at this season of my life is that I am not a morning person. That’s not to say I don’t have to get up early to spend some time with God, fulfill all my familial/household duties, and get to work on time.  But let me have a day off or a time of vacation, and you won’t find me, naturally bounding out of bed before the sun rises. One can conclude that since I am not a morning person, I must be a night person, and one would conclude correctly.  I love to stay up late.  It’s hard to slow my rpm’s down much before midnight on any night, and that goes back as far as I can remember. 

Maybe, I postulate, it all started in early childhood with a simple four line prayer my mom taught me.  It may be familiar to some of you.  

                                                    Now I lay me down to sleep,

                                                  I pray the Lord my soul to keep,

                                                    If I should die before I wake,

                                                  I pray the Lord my soul to take.

I began praying that prayer sometime in early childhood years, you know, when most data predicts I would live 75 or even 80 years as an American male.  But here I am—three, four years old—every night, tacitly anticipating my imminent demise.  “If I should die before I wake” kind of jumps out at you as a preschooler.  So if death is a real possibility every single night of my little life, I best stay awake as long as I can. I am aware that other (probably early) childhood educators softened this prayer a bit in later years to go something like this:

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
Angels watch me through the night,
And wake me with the morning light.

A little less threatening, I agree, but had that been the version my parents used, I still would have been wondering why the Lord had to “keep my soul.” After all, I did have this neurotic fear of jungle animals getting into my bedroom at night to the point where I always insisted on sleeping on the top bunk!  True story.  How pathetic.  So the notion of entering unconsciousness at the end of every day was something to be avoided or at least delayed until the very last moment.

Sadly, it was this very anxiety which I believe my parents were seeking to relieve by teaching me this prayer. The God they loved and taught me to love had me on His radar—even when I wasn’t awake or aware of it. His love was a very individual, up all night care for me as I lay sleeping.  I guess you could say that I learned very early on that God is not a morning person, nor an evening person.  He’s 24-7.  Up all night and up all day.  His word clearly teaches this.  Psalm 121 describes it this way:

He who watches over you will not slumber;

indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord watches over you—the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.  (3b-6)

And better yet, God is not just some security guard drearily checking his watch every 15 minutes for his next break.  He doesn’t just provide general oversight and protection.  Rather, He is ministering to us while we sleep, loving us in quiet ways that perhaps we may never even know until we are with Him in heaven.  The prophet Zephaniah wrote this:

For the Lord your God is living among you.  He is a mighty savior.
He will take delight in you with gladness.  With his love, he will calm all your fears.
He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.” (NLT)

Taken together, these two references (Psalm 121 and Zephaniah 3) remind us that God is always concerned for our well-being, our peace of mind, even when we are not consciously aware of it.  He never leaves us alone. He is never asleep on the job.  In another psalm, David lifts a prayer of praise to this 24-7 God of ours:

How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!
I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! 

And when I wake up, You are still with me!

(Ps. 139:17,18)

Why not thank Him right now for such amazing care. I know He’s still up.

tad