Love Not Sleep

I have not posted in awhile. I've been sloughing off on a vow, playing Jonah, and this week, God put me in the belly of the whale. I have a project He wants me to complete, one I have fought with Him over for years.

In the Why I Write Tab, I describe some of God's motivational techniques to keep me on track, among which have been lions, odd coincidences, and weird phone calls.

The most recent inspiration was a little more subtle in outward appearance. No lions ran in front of my car. No weird phone calls. Yet the incident was undeniably a Divine reinforcement to finish this project without further delay - or excuses. 

The project? A book. One I have alternately been enthused about, then disgusted with for what seems like a lifetime. From what other authors tell me, this merry go round is natural, a love hate relationship that continues long past actual publication. 

However, my disgust goes a little further. Not only do I sometimes think the writing, or the story, or pick the issue du jour, well, stinks - it's work - lots of work. And there have been many days I wonder, why am I bothering? If I died tomorrow, would it matter to anyone that I wrote this story? Well, evidently God thinks will matter. To whom? Who knows. Maybe only to me, but He has told me "Get It done." 

Included in some of my ongoing, and sometimes heated discussions with God over this project, He has repeatedly suggested, I get up earlier in order to have more time to write. I know I am most productive, most creative, early in the morning, but sometimes getting up early enough to read my devotions, and have time to write, is hard.  

After a few more Divine encouragements, I thought, well, okay, I'll rise an hour earlier than usual, 4:00 am rather than 5:00 am. as my Lenten pledge. 

 I did well the first week or two, but after a couple of rough nights without much sleep due to one factor or another, my resolve weakened, and I set the alarm back a little later, and then a little later and yes, it didn't take very long before that extra hour, and my pledge, was gone. My rationale, how could I function at work if I didn't get enough sleep? God didn't buy that excuse either. 

Thursday morning my eyes popped open at 4:00 am- without the benefit of the alarm. I tried to go back to sleep. Nope. Giving in, I rose, made coffee and went into my little study to read my devotions, always the first thing I do, regardless. 

I finished my usual readings, and with the little extra time I usually didn't have, I clicked on an online devotional I hadn't read in months.  Lo and behold, one of the first scriptures listed was this one: 

Don't be too fond of sleep; you'll end up in the poorhouse.

Wake up and get up; then there'll be food on the table. 

Psalm 20:13(The Message)

Guess what time I was up yesterday? And what time I'll be up tomorrow and the next?Yep. And amazingly, I am not only posting here again, I am nearly finished with the first round of edits for the book. Imagine that.