lanai city, hawaii, 96763

Friday, June 30, 2006

Oatmeal in the Dark

Every morning I wake up sometime between 7 'o clock to 7:30. This is fine. It gives me more than enough time to check my e-mail, have a quick breakfast, read my text, prepare for the ministry, and get dressed. This sounds like a lot, but somehow I manage to squeeze all that into an hour, hour half, and make it to the meeting for field service on time.

Lately, though, I've been realizing that it would perhaps be beneficial to push my wake up time ahead an hour more, between 6 'o clock to 6:30. This would not only allow me more time to prepare, but also give me the option of starting out my day in the ministry an hour earlier.

But this is easier said than done. My morning rituals are strictly a mental exercise. A test, if you will, of my individual will power. Even the (now) regular practice of scarfing down a bowlful of crunchy oatmeal was initially a struggle in itself. But I only did it, to start off with, because of the energy boost it inevitably provides, and how, in a purely technical sense, it upped my game in the field. And the result? Now I (at times) look forward to having a bowlful of creamy, steamy Quaker Oats.

What I'm trying to say is that waking up earlier will not be easy. It will be like forcing myself to do something that I naturally do not want to do, but if I keep in mind why it's spiritually beneficial to do it anyways, than it will eventually become like second nature to me.

And that is what it comes down to, for me at least. Increasing my quality of ministry and quantity of time dedicated to Jehovah involves a lot of self discipline. I speak of these things, purely in a physical sense. And yet, even more so, serving Jehovah whole-souled involves personal introspection as well. But that is entirely another story.

Suffice it to say that, from now on until further notice, I will try my best to be up at the crack of dawn, that is, sometime between 6 to 6:30. If any of you coo-coo monkeys feel like holding me to that commitment, feel free to call me anytime after that. I'll probably be crunching on a bowl of oatmeal in the dark, but I promise not to complain. That is, if I'm even up to take your call...

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home