Just some early morning thoughts from me to you…
This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118: 24 (ESV)
How did you wake up this morning?
I mean beyond rubbing your eyes, rolling out of bed and wobbling through your early morning rituals. I mean before your usual morning infusion of caffeine, did you sense a twinge of excitement with each successive step toward the coffee pot? Was there a sense that something unexpected might occur today—and you found your gait quickening with anticipation—excited rather than apprehensive of what that might be?
Did you jump out of bed this morning? And as your feet hit the floor, did you hear a sound like “Woooo!” or “Weeee!” coming from somewhere out of your mouth? Did you shriek with excitement as you noticed the “toys and stuffed animals” laying where you left them the night before, sitting invitingly near the end of the bed and around the walls of the room?
Did you feel a surge of adrenaline coursing through your waking limbs? Did you just notice—or did you stand in awe and amazement of—the sunrise God sent to start your day? Were you still preoccupied by the baggage of yesterday and the restless dreams of the night before—or were you ready to go the “playroom” to continue your play from yesterday, or to throw open the front door and claim the day before you as a day of adventure?
In his book the “Diary of a Country Priest”, George Bernanos, writing of his youth, confesses regretfully in one candid admission that “I was never young…because I never dared to be young.” I wonder if that resonates a bit with any of you. Do you notice that as you get older—you seem to act older at times? The youthfulness of youth has been left in your youth?
That’s not how God intended it to be.
Sadly, somewhere along the route that is the journey of our lives, too many of us lose that child-like sense of wonder and amazement—that sense of adventure that still exists in each day set before us. Somewhere along the roadway of our lives, the sunshine of the morning has become dim by the expected and routine—rather than a bright sacred moment of appreciation of God’s creation, where our hearts are set ablaze once again with all of its promise. Somewhere along the path of our lives we have learned to become “responsible” and re-programmed to march to an acceptable beat, conformed to the way life “should” be, and domesticated to fit into bland templates of aging—which outline appropriate and expected behaviors. Somewhere along the way, too many of us have learned to be careful, and have lost that sense of wonder and abandonment that was planted in us by the Creator.
Somewhere along the way, too many of us have begun to allow ourselves to act and be old—regardless our age. We don’t allow life to excite us anymore.
It’s not the way it was meant to be. Not by the God who created us. We weren’t created for a life predictably outlined by a world mindlessly spinning through sameness each day. Yet somewhere along the way toward amazement and wonder, our laughter was labeled as silly—and suddenly stopped. Our dreams of doing something no one else has ever done were doused with the cold-water of “being practical.” Our daily astonishment at that irregular flight of a butterfly, the wondrous weave of a spider’s web, the tiny ripples of a fish jumping again and again in the river, and the melody of birds splashing innocently in a puddle of water—was replaced with a mundane, responsible and narrow focus on simply doing, climbing to the top and accumulating things.
The joy was gone. One of the tell-tale signs was when you noticed that your smile was gone or absent a lot.
But the good news is that no matter our age—it doesn’t have to continue to be that way. The child within us—knit by the hand of God with a sense of wonder and amazement—is still there waiting to be let out. The child who expects God to show up in every moment of every day and in every situation—the child who awakens with an expectation of excitement at what is waiting for them—remains within us waiting to emerge again. Waiting to be thrown out of bed and into all that each day from our Creator has in store.
Let it happen. No matter what the reality of the moment is—aches, pains, disappointment, uncertainty, or failure—let out the child who God created to infuse your spirit, present and future with all that God has in store for you.
And then hang on.
You will be surprised at the renewed sparkle in your eyes, the spring in your step, the fire in your heart and the dreams which begin to fill your days again. You will be pleasantly surprised to find a renewed sense of wonder, amazement and ultimately, an eternal purpose in the day.
How did you wake up this morning?
But the real question now is…
How will you wake up tomorrow, and in every other day left in your life while here on earth?
In His Name—Scott
Copyright 2011. Scott L. Whitaker. All rights reserved.
