A New Way of Life

I bury my face into my pillow to drown out the alarm. The muffled beep isn’t as jarring, but it still makes me cringe. I reach my hand out toward my nightstand and try to locate my phone by touch. Lamp. Wallet. Got it. I hit a button and the alarm stops.

I sigh. I’m exhausted, and it’s nice to lay in bed. I know I set my alarm so I could read my Bible before work, but I don’t want to get up. I’ve been doing really well at having consistent quiet times. I can skip today.

The problem is, this feeling isn’t unique to this morning. I feel this way every day when my alarm goes off. And if I give in today, I know I’m more likely to give in tomorrow.

It’s the season of broken New Year’s resolutions. The crowd at the gym is starting to thin. I’ve been seeing fewer packed lunches at work and more take-out. Reality is making its comeback over ideality.

As I lay in bed, I run through my classic excuses:

I’ll read after work. But I know I won’t have time.

God wouldn’t want me to be tired. But I know that I’ll be spiritually wiped out if I’m not in God’s word.

God doesn’t want me to be legalistic about my quiet time. But I know God wants me to consistently grow in my relationship with Him.

I roll over and stretch.

I don’t want my time with God to be a New Year’s resolution. Resolutions are doomed to be broken and discarded. I want my time with God to be a way of life. To be as regular to my schedule as eating or sleeping or breathing. And there’s only one way to do that.

I sit up, and my feet touch the floor. It’s cold. I miss the warmth of my bed. But I know that if I had stayed there, I would be missing something more important.