As stated here on many occasions I am not a morning person. I know. Shocker. I don’t get up early and cook a big breakfast (or eat a bowl of cereal for that matter) and go for a morning workout. It’s just not in me. I get up just early enough to get ready, grab a SlimFast and leave. I don’t even use the snooze button because it would just wake me up earlier than I need to be awake.

Needless to say I have never been good at getting up in the morning before everything and having what my Baptist church growing up called a “quiet time”. For those of you that don’t know, a quiet time is time spent reading the Bible, praying, etc. But for me the quiet time was always too quiet of a time and I ended up back asleep because I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I don’t want to neglect spending time with my God so I had to adjust. So for me my time with God or quiet time or (if you really wanna go back to my Baptist roots) vespers (which I just looked up and apparently Camp Hudgens was wrong because vespers is an evening prayer service in Catholicism…punks…they just wanted us to wake up early) has always been a night thing. I am awake. I can focus. I can think. I can write. I can read. Those are already difficult things for me to do anyway, so I capitalize on the time my body and brain agrees the most.

Right now I am reading through Paul’s letters to the churches. Of course this baby thing is making that a bit more difficult too what with the being tired at 7 PM because I didn’t sleep the night before so I am having to adjust again. But I am curious about how the rest of the world does their time.

What do you do? What do you read? When works the best for you? What keeps you focused? What keeps you disciplined?

So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:

They kill us in cold blood because they hate you. 
We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one. None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow,

high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.

Romans 8:31-39

Sometimes we just need this reminder.  Life gets hard.  It gets painful.  You seem surrounded by enemies trying to hunt you down.  BUT it is in those times that God shows up and shows us His power again.  He shows us His love.  His grace.  His truth.  I love that.  None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us.  I’m absolutely convinced that NOTHING can get between us and God’s love.

When you read Luke, as Jesus is entering into Jerusalem everyone is singing His praises.  But the Pharisees freaked out and tried to stop it.

Some Pharisees from the crowd told him, “Teacher, get your disciples under control!” But he said, “If they kept quiet, the stones would do it for them, shouting praise.”

Luke 19:39-40

I have always wanted to see that.  Rocks crying out to God.  That just seems so far beyond what I can understand and imagine, yet so insanely awesome.  But they won’t.  Not yet.

The created world itself can hardly wait for what’s coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead.

Romans 3:19-21

Do you see the amazing privilege that we have here?  The created world is being held back.  The entire world wants to do something that we have the choice to do.  They want to worship God.  And we have a choice.  Worship Him without being held back or live for ourselves.  Unfortunately I do the latter far too much.  I want to worship Him more.  I need to worship Him more.  (By the way, worshipping is way more than learning G, C, D and Em on the guitar and playing every worship song.  It is much more than going to church and singing two fast, one slow, one fast…or verse one and two, skip verse three and end with verse 4…just depends on what church you go to.)

I want to worship/honor/praise/trust Him…

…with my attitude.

…with my family.

…with my road rage.

…with my tweets.

…with my life.

He deserves so much more worship than I give Him.  The rocks know that.  They want to let it rip, but it’s just not their time yet.  Maybe we should start learning from them.  Maybe I am dumber than a rock.

Sometimes blogging is easy.  Sometimes it just flows from life or what I’m learning.  Other times it is a bit more difficult.  Once you make the commitment to blog every day, those days when the writing doesn’t come so naturally make a bigger difference because you can’t just go back to playing Words With Friends and say “maybe I’ll blog tomorrow”.  This post was born out of one of those days.  Well, kinda.  Actually, I just wasn’t in the mood to think of something spiritual or funny so I decided to ask my wife what I should blog about.  The following is the first 10 things she told me to blog about.  Instead if blogging about one of them, I am using them all.

• My wife is still pregnant.
• We got a new car yesterday.
• Baby bibs don’t fit around her neck.
• How much I love where I live.
• How much chocolate milk she has consumed in the last 9 months.
• How cute the little Venezuela t-shirt for the baby is.
• How much her body hurts.
• How cute our dog is (even though he can’t control his bladder, he is the sweetest thing).
• How she agrees with Rachel from Friends. She has never been this uncomfortable in her entire life.
• Do you think if we just go to the hospital and fake contractions they will take the baby out?

So there you go.  Next time you are in need of a good blog topic, there is what my wife says to write about…of course it probably won’t do you any good to use this list unless your wife is pregnant and overdue, you have just purchased a car, you happen to have someone get you a gift t-shirt from Venezuela, you absolutely love where you live, or you have a very cute dog.  But if all that fits where you happen to be, then by all means, help yourself!

Daylight Savings,

Every time you come around I get upset. I always jump on the “I Hate Daylight Savings” bandwagon and I do it quickly.

For that I’m sorry.

I say things about you that are mean. I talk bad about you behind your back.

For that I’m sorry.

Daylight Savings is just about neutral in my book. That’s what I have decided now that the countdown to the meltdown of the following morning has ended. Twice a year I get upset at Daylight Savings as if it is ruining my world. But in the end, we basically come out about even, right?

In the fall Daylight Savings gets me an extra hour of sleep. I like that. But it also makes the sun come up earlier and the darkness fall on the beautiful scenery around me too early. I don’t like that.

So we are even.

In the spring Daylight Savings makes me lose an hour of sleep. I don’t like that. But it also makes the sun come up later and I once again get to enjoy the world around me later than 4:45. I like that.

Once again, even.

So Daylight Savings, I’m sorry for the awful things I said to you. You didn’t deserve them. You are just doing your job anyway, right? I mean, it’s only one hour of sleep, right?

But then again, one hour of sleep gained is NOT worth half a year of bright mornings and dark evenings! And on top of that, you always sneak up on me and I never know you are coming! Then my whole world isn’t prepared and I have to scramble just to make sure everything is gonna be OK. Don’t you know that changing a musicians schedule for waking up in the morning is just asking for trouble? Well, you should know! Now you do. I mean, I can’t keep all your “cute” little phrases straight! I never know which way to move my clock! And what’s with moving the clock? Isn’t time just time? How do you change the time? Why can’t we be the smart ones that make it difficult on everyone else because we refuse to acknowledge your stupidity?! And 2 AM? Why not the middle of the day?! Or on the half hour?! Might as well be 7:13 for all I care!

Daylight Savings, I take it back!

I’m not sorry for the things I said to you.

You still suck.

Anyone else wanna jump on the “Boycott Daylight Savings For Good” bandwagon with me?

but the baby is not.  Looks like I will have a little more time to get myself all pumped up for the whole thing while we leave the bun in the oven for a little bit longer!

So yesterday was the last Friday before our baby’s due date.  We are so excited as I’m sure you know.  It has been a very fast and very long (all at the same time) 9 months.  One of the things that we have enjoyed is the email we get every Friday morning (beginning of each new week) from BabyCenter.com.  Yeah it’s a little cheesy, but they tell you all the general developments of the baby for that week.  I liked knowing that she was picking out her eyeballs one week and others learning to breathe.  Pretty freakin’ cool.  But now that we are at the end, I only have one major question.  What will the BabyCenter email say for this Friday?  I am not sure what to expect so here are a few things I can think of that the informative email may say when there is nothing left to say.

• Your baby is due.
• Have your baby today.
• Your baby is finally ripe.
• Good luck.
• Don’t worry.  If you still haven’t had your baby yet, your day is coming.
• If you still haven’t had your baby, look on the bright side!  At least they won’t let you go a month past your due date anymore!
• Enjoy the hospital bills!
• Dear husband.  You can have your wife back now.
• Dear husband.  You are now farther down the list of your wife’s most important things.
• Parents, say goodbye to birthday and Christmas presents for you!
• Every kiss begins with Kay.
• Ding.
• Don’t forget to check out our other website ParentCenter.com while your baby isn’t letting you sleep.

Did I miss any options?  What would you want the email to say?