Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Wake me from my sleep.

So Amy is actively involved with a new(ish) online community called "Overcome the Lie," and I've been watching their Instagram feed for awhile but hadn't really joined the party until today. Today they started a 40 Day Challenge, and as I was reading about it, I didn't even think for two seconds before I emailed saying, "Count me in!" The challenge is all about discovering the enormity of God's love for us, and I feel like I need that reminder these days.


Anyway, one of the first things that you're supposed to do for this challenge is choose something to fast from during these 40 days. (Confession? Had I known about the fasting aspect ahead of time, I might not have signed up. I have a strange aversion to giving things up for God. So, obviously, I needed to be a part of this thing.) I thought and prayed throughout the day about what I should fast, and nothing came to mind until tonight when we were praying during Bible study and asking God to pour his Spirit into us.

Pretty much any time someone starts talking about the Holy Spirit, I get this one song stuck in my head. (I posted the YouTube video awhile back.) So of course, as we're praying tonight, I'm hearing these lyrics:

"Spirit of the living God, come fall afresh on me;
Come wake me from my sleep.
Blow through the caverns of my soul;
Pour in me -- to overflow..."

And then I was struck with this absolute certainty of what I'm supposed to fast: my snooze button.

It sounds silly, but that button has been such a burden on me for pretty much my entire adult life. I've tried, to no avail, to give it up and just start "being" a morning person, but nine times out of ten, I still wind up snoozing for at least half an hour and finally waking up frustrated and groggy. The last thing on my mind on those mornings is spending time with Jesus, because obviously I've caused myself to run late for whatever the stupid alarm was set for.

I don't know if this fast will "cure" me of my snooze-button habit, but I know I need to make it about more than just managing my mornings better. It's about dedicating my first few waking minutes to Christ; dwelling in his presence and refocusing my heart and attention on him. And I don't want those minutes to be rushed or half-asleep -- or worse, completely forgotten like they have been lately.

So feel free to text me, IM me, comment here and otherwise pester me asking whether I snoozed my alarm on any given day. I'm praying God will give me the strength and wherewithal to hear my first alarm and immediately remember this 40-day promise I've made and follow through with it.

On that note, I should probably have been asleep like two hours ago! Oops...

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If you want to join this community, check out OvercometheLie.org. The founder is super sweet and responsive, and I feel like this community is going to do some awesome things in the future!

2 comments:

  1. How is the snooze fast going?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Great! I haven't hit the snooze button ONCE since I started. I did go back to sleep on Monday after my alarm went off, but that's the day I stayed home from work because I wasn't feeling well.

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