Category: Miscellany

The Secret To Early Morning Devotionals

2010 © Gregory Scott

Today was a very productive day. I awoke at 4:00 a.m. (an hour earlier than usual), read the Bible, the New York Times, finished reading a book and began a new book. After doing all that, I was at the office by 7:30 a.m. (Yes, on a Saturday).

I know many Christians struggle to consistently spend time in morning prayer and Bible study. We know the morning is really the best time for a devotional because it gets one in the right frame of mind for the day.

There’s even support for it in the Bible: “O God, Thou art my God; early I will seek Thee.” (Psalm 63:1 KJV). But many find it difficult to get up early enough in the morning for a devotional before work.

Many years ago I learned the secret of having a consistent morning devotional. It’s not a gimmick or a teaching that merely tickles the ears.  It actually works, and it works pretty much every time.

It doesn’t take any practice to get it down, and it’s easy to remember and replicate. You won’t find it in many books because it’s so simple you couldn’t write a book on it; you couldn’t even write a chapter on it.

The secret is this:  Go to bed early the night before.

It is that simple.  Here’s how it works.  Figure out how much sleep you need.  When I was younger, I needed eight hours; now I’m good on six.  That means if I’m to get up at 5:00 a.m., I need to be in bed by 11:00 p.m. the night before.  That’s it.  And it works pretty much every time.  If you need eight hours sleep, you need to be in bed by 9:00 p.m.  People working the night shift and odd hours figured this one out long ago.

If you were expecting a deep teaching on how Christians have been given a Spirit of discipline (which is true), or how you can believe the Holy Spirit to wake you in the morning without an alarm clock, I’m sorry to disappoint.  But if you think me unspiritual, remember Jesus said, “Wisdom is shown to be right by its results.”  (Matt. 11:19 NLT).  Now get to bed. GS

The Poison We Drink

I was in a consultation recently with a client who was having a problem at work: a coworker had been rude to her, outrageously rude. The client complained to human resources, but they didn’t do anything, and she was determined to continue pursuing grievances until the rude coworker got what she deserved.

I could see what was going to happen because I had seen it before. I tried to convince her that unless she let it go, her continued complaints would make her the problem in the eyes of her employer and probably cost her her job. She said she realized that but she couldn’t let it go and wouldn’t, even if it cost her her job.

This is a situation I see more often than you might think, and I’m a lawyer, not a psychiatrist–people willing to lose their jobs because they are unwilling to lose their unforgiveness.

There are a handful of scriptures that have always troubled me. They are warnings that are not obscure or ambiguous, and while some people try to give them a more benign spin, I’ve always thought it safer to take them at face value and heed their warnings. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is one; the narrow gate is another. And then there’s this one: “But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matt. 6:14-15 NIV). Jesus said it, so I think we can bank on it being true. But how do you do it?

The key is realizing that unforgiveness is not an act of reason, but emotion. We consider our unforgiveness is a rational attempt at justice, but it is actually irrational. Think about it, whom does your unforgiveness upset more, the person who wronged you or you? Duh. As it has been said, “Unforgiveness is the poison we drink hoping another will die.” That’s how irrational it is.

Moreover, unless you are perfect, you will make a mistake and hurt someone someday, if you haven’t already (and I’m confident you have, as we all have). Would you deny another the same forgiveness you covet when you are the perpetrator? Is that rational? Double duh. Unforgiveness is not just, and it’s not rational. And if it’s not rational, that just leaves emotion.

So don’t drink the poison. GS

Toothpaste, Trials & Trust

I went to the grocery store yesterday to buy a tube of toothpaste. I don’t go to the grocery store much. I don’t believe in it. Going, not grocery stores. Actually, I just say that because I don’t like going and usually leave it up to my wonderful wife in accordance with our verbal contract that I will make the money if she promises to spend it.

Anyway, when I arrived at the dental care products aisle I was paralyzed by the number of choices. There must have been at least thirty different types of toothpaste. There was cool mint, whitening formula, sensitive teeth, anti-plaque and various combinations thereof.  I found myself comparing the relative strengths of each one and even trying to determine which box looked better, which is a stupid reason for choosing toothpaste. It would have been easier if they had just offered me 2 choices. It would have taken me no time at all to make a decision.

As I’ve become a more experienced trial lawyer, I’ve noticed I don’t give my clients as much information or as many choices as I used to, and I think I’m a better lawyer for it. I think my clients like it better too. After all, I went to law school for three years and have been practicing law for twenty years. They trust I’m in a better position to know which strategies to use, procedures to employ and arguments to make  to get the case to the point where I can present them with a decision they can understand. It’s usually a decision like, “Should we accept what they are offering to settle or not?”

That got me to thinking about how God deals with us. He doesn’t give us a buffet of Jesus’ from which to choose.  He doesn’t ask, “Do you want the Jesus who is your friend but not Lord, or the Jesus who will bless you with riches and never refine your character by trials?”

We don’t have 30 brands of Jesus from which to choose. I suppose God could have created a universe in which we could choose a Jesus with different options, but He didn’t. It’s a yes or no proposition. Jesus said, “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46). Jesus can’t be your friend and not be your Lord because that’s not who He is, and if that’s the Jesus you know, you don’t really know Jesus. Jesus made it real simple. He said, “Believe…in Me.” (John 14:1).

What I Learned About God From My Cat

My Cat, Godfrey 2010 (c) Gregory Scott

My cat, Godfrey, was not happy with me.   It was time for dinner, he was hungry and I hadn’t fed him.  So, each time I walked into the kitchen he ran over to me, cried, ran back to where we feed him and then looked back over his shoulder at me.  I got it, but he didn’t think I got it.

I couldn’t feed him because he was going to the veterinarian the next day for an endoscopy.  You see, Godfrey tends to toss his cookies and the endoscopy was supposed to help us understand why.  The problem is Godfrey didn’t understand all that.

I tried to explain it to him.  I told him he couldn’t eat because if he ate, the endoscopy wouldn’t work, and if the endoscopy didn’t work we wouldn’t be able to see what was wrong with him, and if we couldn’t see what was wrong with him, he would keep barfing.  But I could tell he didn’t get it.  He just sat there staring at me, meowing plaintively.

I tried speaking very slowly. I’ve even spelled it out for him, e-n-d-o-s-c-o-p-y, but it wasn’t registering.  He knew I loved him and fed him every day, and it didn’t make sense to him why I was not feeding him this night.

The thing is, Godfrey is a smart cat. When he wants me to hold him he gets up next to me and taps me on the shoulder with his paw.  When he wants a certain type of food, he walks into the pantry and taps on the bag with his paw.  But he doesn’t see and think on the level of complexity that I, as a human being, can, and I can’t explain it to him in any way that will satisfy him.

I’m confident God is farther above us than I am above Godfrey.  If He wasn’t we would probably be disappointed in Him.  I suspect that also means there are some painful things we go through that, as much as God may want to explain, we are not capable of understanding.  He sees so much and understands the cause and effect of things on a much higher level of complexity than we could ever understand.  So, instead, at times, He just asks us to trust Him.

Now if I can just figure out how to explain that to Godfrey. GS

Smart Dude Sayings

Here are some quotes from G.K. Chesterton, one smart dude and a fabulous writer:

“If there were no God, there would be no atheists.”

“The Christian idea has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.”

“One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.”

“In truth, there are only two kinds of people: those who accept dogma and know it, and those who accept dogma and don’t know it.”

“Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference, which is an elegant name for ignorance.”

“To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.”

“You can only find Truth with logic if you have already found Truth without it.”

GS