If you know much about me you know that I am an early riser. You might be surprised to learn that being an early riser really isn’t my natural inclination. At least I don’t think that it is. Several factors have changed my morning routine:
- My dog Hank, who simply does better throughout the day if we walk a bit.
- Living in Houston, which is interminably hot during daylight hours.
- A need to simply get exercise over and done.
- Attempting to get some things accomplished before the day begins.
Normally, I put on some crime drama or news program when Hank and I are on our now four-mile strolls. However, back in January I decided that listening to the interesting and informative things weren’t giving me a good start to the day. Rather, I felt a desire to add scripture to my walking.
Out of the blue, The Bible in One Year, came my way. I was listening to another program and heard Nicky Gumbel. This seemed a good place to start. While not always agreeing with his interpretation of scripture, he is engaging and gives me quality moments in God’s Word which can foster a more healthy beginning to my day.
Some days are more successful than others at staying engaged. The past few days have been a bit of a struggle. My mind has been on the our United Methodist Church’s struggle to define who exactly we are. I realized after today’s walk that I didn’t really stay engaged as I should’ve.
Why is it that? Is it that I’m distracted? Is that I have too much on my mind? In his book The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, John Mark Comer offers up . . .
“In 2000, before the digital revolution, it [our attention span] was twelve seconds . . . but since, it’s dropped to eight seconds. To put things in perspective, a goldfish has an attention span of nine seconds. Yea, that’s right, we’re losing to goldfish.”
Upon reflection, I needed to jump back into the scripture lesson for today, which was from Romans 1:17 . . .
“God’s righteousness is being revealed in the gospel, from faithfulness for faith, as it is written, The righteous person will live by faith.” (NIV)
I think the message for today was for me to “live by faith” a bit further. I’ll work on that.
PRAYER (from The Bible in One Year)
Thank you, Lord, for all the blessings of your presence with me. Thank you for the very way in which yo strengthen me daily with your presence. Amen.
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