Here we go again!

     Another Friday and 24 degrees this morning.  Clear sky and frost on everything.  It's the kind of morning when you want to roll over and go back to sleep.  Sometimes I do.  Other times I get up and my first move is to get a cup of nice hot coffee, sit back in my recliner and look out my back patio door at the marvels of creation all around me.  It gets better with the second cup!  Sometimes I get a quilt to cover myself.  My Boston Terrier climbs under the cover and goes to sleep.  My Blue Heeler climbs into his bed by the recliner and does the same.  We like the early morning solitude when all the conditions are right.  I would imagine that you would as well.  It's nice to be able to have a morning set aside for nothing!  Of course sooner or later I need to leave my cave and meet the world.  It's something I don't particularly like to do.  It's not that I don't like people as I do like people.  It's when I compare the place I just described to being out among people that it seems like I don't like people.  Sometimes it's the commuters and sometimes it's the store personnel.  Perhaps you experience the same with those you work for and with.  Comparisons aren't particularly fair. 
     There are a lot of things I could be doing this morning but none of them trump the time set aside to do nothing.  Christians, I believe, need to do this from time to time.  Take a mental health day or just call in and explain that you just can't get out of bed this morning.  Of course they would understand!  Not!  Taking time apart is essential for each of us.  That means being apart from anything that separates us from communing with God.  You may feel guilty at first taking this time for your relationship with God.  Get over it.  He's more important than anyone or anything in the world.  Who knows, maybe he has something planned to share with you.  He knows you and I and knows we listen best when we don't have distractions to engage with.  We, Christians, have been trained by the world to continually be distracted from time alone with God.  We have our radios in our cars, cell phones that can do anything but burp, and television programming that anyone can find something to watch.  It's called relaxation time but it's not quiet time.  We would like to think so but it's not somewhere that we can be still before God. 
     So, here we go again, trying to rationalize and justify our choices and exclude God from the equation we call our life.  If you and I are Christians we don't have "our life" as we have given it to Him.  I went to a church once where there was going to be a week of fasting.  People were told that fasting could take the form of anything they wanted to give up for a week.  Whether that meant time on the computer, watching television, or anything else you could find.  However, that deprivation doesn't turn into a craving for God.   At least not like not eating and spending time in prayer and meditation.  I once fasted for 40 days and besides the weight loss enjoyed not having the distraction of anything but my bottle of water.  Okay, some of the water was in the form of coffee!  After 3-4 days the cravings went away and I settled into a time much like I described in the opening of this blog only it was every day all day.  I still went to work, commuted, sat with my family, watched television, and did ordinary things.  The difference?  No one but God and my family knew what I was doing.  The Scripture tells us to keep such things in private. 
     I'll get up in a moment and I think I'll bake some cookies and clean the stove.  Then maybe I'll go outside and take care of the chickens.  Who knows, maybe I will work on a project.  Perhaps I'll ponder the greatness of God as I do all of them.  All I know is I will move through my day with all kinds of choices.  It's always your choice.