Last night I went to bed as early as possible. I called my fiance and said goodnight and quickly fell asleep. It wasn’t even 9:30pm and I was as tired as could be.
I set my alarm for 6am and when it went off this morning, I hit snooze…twice. It was now 6:20am and I like to be at the church for services by 7:00am so I can get things set-up and help wherever possible. I still had to shower and get ready, plus, pick up doughnuts for Sunday school. I knew I’d have to really hustle this morning.
I arrived at the doughnut shop a little after 7:00am, or so I thought. I didn’t worry, being a few minutes late wasn’t going to hurt anyone. Every Sunday morning the same two guys are in this doughnut shop talking. This morning they were talking about how when they left home their wives were snoring. I thought to myself, “I hope I never talk about my wife like that…”.
Then one of the old guys says to the other old guy, “I know you have a habit of waking up at 2 or 3am every day. Did you wake up at 1am instead because of the time change…?”
It was like some slow motion movie moment for a brief second. I sat there. Amazed that this was the day we set our clocks back and hour…and I had forgot. I thought about the time change twice on Thursday and once on Friday. I even thought about it last Saturday and Sunday and in my mind smiled at the the thought of people showing up an hour early to church, not even knowing they were early.
God must have been smiling in His heart at me this morning. I sure felt silly at that moment when I realized I was that guy who had forgotten the time change. As I walked out to my car I remembered something I say a lot (and usually to myself)…God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. I think the way it’s actually written is that the mockers, will be mocked.
Character is so important. Not to our world, but to God. Even with the little things, God wants the best from us. In my heart, I was the mocker, and in reality, I was mocked for my pride and its was a silly little time-management/memory issue. None of you would even know this had happened if I hadn’t disclosed it to you now. But God knows, and He knows I want to me a man of noble character. I want to pursue excellence. I want people to look at my life, my thoughts and actions and see something different then the ways of this world. God gracisouly reminded me that my heart is a direct reflection of my character.
Little things matter. I’m sure being on time matters, but mocking others probably matters more. I guess I had a heart-attitude that needed to be addressed and God was gracious to show me the reflection of my own heart this morning at 6 or 7am.
reflections of hope 