Every few months I get the wonderful joy and privilege of traveling to Colorado to teach at Ellerslie (a phenomenal and intense discipleship school). One of the highlights for me is being able to stay the week in the dorm room of two of my favorite friends, Kramer and Mark.
Several months ago, as I was staying in their dorm room, early one morning, Mark’s alarm went off. My eyes quickly flew open, conviction filled my soul and a smile filled my lips for what I heard was the oddest, but most brilliant alarm I have yet to hear.
There is a great audio Bible available called The Word of Promise that uses well known actors, sound effects, and movie-like music to read the Word. I have listened to it several times and it is one of my favorite audio Bibles I have come across (except for the voice of Jesus which seems a bit blasé to me, which on a side note is sad since the entirety of Scripture is culminated in Jesus). The alarm on this early morning in a Colorado dorm room was the Word of Promise’s version of Psalm 63:
O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water. So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, To see Your power and Your glory. Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips shall praise You. Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.
Psalm 63.1-5
What a powerful few verses.
I laid there smiling for what a brilliant way to awake each morning! Yet I was pressed and convicted as well for is this honestly true about my life?
Am I anxious to awake each morning, ready to bound out of bed so I may earnestly seek after God? Does my soul thirst with the intensity of a man in the desert longing for water? Do I crave Him more than the oxygen I breathe? Do I realize that His lovingkindness is better than life? Am I truly satisfied in Him?
Since then, I’ve used that same audio clip to wake up each morning. No, there is nothing “special” about hearing Psalm 63 each morning, and there are still days where I drudgingly get out of bed and start the day, but it is a great reminder for what I want my days to be: intense, seeking, satisfied, filled with the pressing and pleasure of Christ Jesus.
Do you need to change your alarm clock?
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Need some help getting up in the morning? I recommend Andy Traub’s little ebook “Early to Rise” on how to jump-start your mornings, no caffeine necessary. 🙂