The
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Mornings can be excruciating, especially if
it happens to be a Monday morning, and particularly if you’ve spent most of the night poring over textbooks instead of studying the back of your eyelids. That snooze alarm is just so annoying, but you know it’s right. You need to snap out of Dreamland, get up and at ‘em, and somehow keep your 100-lb eyelids pried open for a whole day of fast-approaching deadlines. How? With the help of an ever-faithful friend. Hellooooo, caffeine!
H I G H E R T H I N G S __ 12
Some choose soda, some tea, and some even down those gag reflex-activating energy drinks. My personal morning priority? Good old, straight up black coffee. If I really need to get a move-on, that’s what I grab. The rush of caffeine, then I’m good to go! Bring. It. On. But, wait. Screech to a halt. Am I really prepared to face this new day? Does a caffeinated drink actually equip me for the next 24 hours of my life? Well... not completely. Coffee is tasty, but when it comes to giving perspective on the day, it’s lacking. Caffeine may clear the grogginess of sleep, but it doesn’t point to the One who turned death into a mere slumber and who gives us eternal life. Our physical bodies may be slightly addicted to caffeine, but our very souls are completely and utterly dependent on the work of Someone Else. Like the woman at the well, what we really need every single day is not an earthly
beverage, but the Living Water. There are many blessings we each rely on to get us through the day, but in the course of a normal morning, there is no greater gift than God’s Word. I have to admit it’s something I struggle with every day. We live in a fast-paced, jam-packed, gotta-run world, and it’s so easy to push Him aside. I have to ask myself: How much time each morning do I spend in front of the mirror trying to make myself look halfway presentable? (Yes, it does take awhile!) And how much time do I spend in the morning in God’s Word? ...And, remind me again...Which of these is more important? Yeah. Oops. Thought so.“But I’m running late!!” I usually think. Well, yes, but who gave us time to begin with? My to-do list may be freakishly long, but it’s time to put first things first. How about you? Would you try to face the day without wiping the sleep out of your eyes, combing your hair, or getting dressed? Would you start your
