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Get Up!

I was a lazy kid. I can’t deny that. My Mom had a hard time getting me up in the mornings in time to get ready for school. I procrastinated. I delayed everything except for turning on the TV in time for my favorite shows, remember there was no way to record them back then. I put off doing my homework, especially term papers, yard work, other chores, you name it. I just was not a person motivated by time. Fortunately, I grew up. I changed my attitude over time. I found out that if you had a job your boss expected you to start your shift on time. I found out that when I went to work for myself, that my customers expected me to arrive when I said I would be there. It became simple for me. Get up in the morning, early in the morning. Get ready for the day, get out the door, and allow for traffic, things to get in your way. Things, if you let them, could ruin your day by starting it late. In other words, I hit the snooze button too many times and I learned the hard way to quit doing that.

There are some things that even now I don’t like to do, that I put off. I hate doing tax returns. I never get a refund, which makes extending my time even more likely before I have to hit send. Yes, I do them online.

I have put off going to the dentist for some time now. That isn’t just laziness, that is a combination of not having one anymore, finding one who will take new patients, etc. But I don’t mind all that much. I will get to it one day. Well, maybe it is being lazy. That is a health concern that I need to do something about, eventually.

All the above things make me ask myself this question: Am I being lazy when it comes to looking after my relationship with my God? Do I put off praying over something that needs me to ask for his help? Do I spend more time talking about my problems, complaining about them instead of praying about them? Do I hit the spiritual snooze button too many times? Maybe once is too many. Do I make too many excuses for not spending real time with Jesus? The kind of time where nothing else is important, all worldly thoughts are pushed aside and it’s only me and Him in the room. It’s called being intimate. I am a married man and intimacy is important, between my wife and me. I am talking emotional, as well as physical, intimacy. It is needed to keep our relationship together, to fuse our hearts, make them as one. God and his Holy Spirit want that too, that is why marriage is mentioned so often in his word, it is the human union, but God compares it to the one he wants to have with us.

So I ask you and I ask myself this question again? Am I lazy? Do I work to make my relationship with God stronger, more intimate? Do I get up in the morning and give God my full attention? Do I dig into his word? If not do I make up excuses? Do I hit the spiritual snooze button? If I do, I need to stop, rise up, and get ready for the day. A day with him.

Proverbs 26:

13 A sluggard says, “There’s a lion in the road,
    a fierce lion roaming the streets!”
14 As a door turns on its hinges,
    so a sluggard turns on his bed.
15 A sluggard buries his hand in the dish;
    he is too lazy to bring it back to his mouth.
16 A sluggard is wiser in his own eyes
    than seven people who answer discreetly.

17 Like one who grabs a stray dog by the ears
    is someone who rushes into a quarrel not their own.

18 Like a maniac shooting
    flaming arrows of death
19 is one who deceives their neighbor
    and says, “I was only joking!”