It was the kind of morning I did not want to get up. I mean, did NOT. I am naturally not a morning person, neither is Stephen. That’s one reason we like owning our own business, so that we can set our own office hours. Because, I mean, really, why do people need to be up at an obnoxious hour like 8am?
Yet, as I sat there staring at my bible, and my Starbucks Via in my hip and trendy Starbucks glass container made to look like the plastic cup, I thought back to the night before. Not only was I up at 8am for an appointment I had that day, but I was also going on about 4 hours of sleep, if that. Last time I looked at the clock, it was about 4:22am. What started as an attempt to go to bed to early, turned into a sob fest in bed as I cried my eyes out feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders right now. So many stresses, so many pressures, so many uncertainties that lie ahead that I couldn’t fall asleep for my habit to overanalyze the latest greatest thing to freak out about.
After our long talk in bed and Stephen’s comforting words, naturally, he fell asleep quickly like he always does. And I still laid in bed wide awake.
“Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep,” I tried to talk myself into doing, yet it never works. So instead, I turned to my phone. I had already played my share of Ticket To Ride for the day, and caught up on my apps for E! News, TMZ and People. So then I turned to what really I need to turn to first in life, my bible app. As it loaded, I couldn’t help but think, why do I sometimes let this be the last thing I turn to instead of the first?
What loaded was not the bible itself like I had thought the app was, but something called YouVersion. I think Stephen grabbed my phone one night and loaded it on there for me. I’m old school and like the crisp crinkled pages between my fingers of the falling apart bible I still use from when I was 14 and got baptized. So while I knew the app was on my phone, I confess, this was the first time I had actually opened it.
What I was found in YouVersion was a series of devotional reading plans you could sign up for to get your daily dose of God’s word in. As I scrolled down the list, one stood out too boldly to me: “21 Day Plan for Busy Women”. As I read it’s description further, “Juggling, multi-tasking, harried, are words that frequently describe my days. Rushing to make appointments on time because I don’t want to be THAT woman who doesn’t have her act together. Are your days like mine?” I answered a loud YES (well, to myself because I didn’t want to wake up Stephen).
I read the first devotional. It was about the most popular woman of all in the bible: Mary.
“My soul praises the Lord; my heart rejoices in God my Savior…because the Powerful One has done great things for me. His name is holy. God will show His mercy forever and ever to those who worship and serve Him. He has done mighty deeds by His power.” ~Luke 1:46-47
I read that thinking, “Gosh, Lord, let that be what comes from my lips. Let me praise You and trust You better.” If Mary can calmly say that immediately following the biggest news of her life that, uh, she was about to give birth to the Savior of the world, I mean if I were in her shoes, I would have been overwhelmed and freaking out JUST a little. ”Why me? You want me to do WHAT? How can this be possible naturally? Wait, let me overanalyze how I’m going to take care of a child when I’m still practically a child. Um, You see, right now isn’t the best timing, I’m already a little stressed with everything else You have on my plate right now.” Those would have been my humanly reactions, how about you?
Yet, Mary simply responds, “I am the servant of the Lord. Let this happen to me as you say!” ~Luke 1:38
What a great example. What a great CALM example. As my eyes started to get heavy, I took a deep breath and put my phone away thinking, “Ok, if she can do what’s set before her, and stay calm about it, then I can too. ’My soul praises the Lord.’”
Sometimes, we just need to see an example to give us something to strive for. Whether it’s someone in the bible, whether it’s little boys looking up to Tim Tebow, whether it’s a photographer’s work you admire, or your neighbor who rocked out a cool vegetable garden and you were curious if could start one that would survive too. We all need examples to show us it’s possible. Sometimes, just knowing it’s possible is all we need to start turning the impossible into reality.
So as I hit my alarm at 8am, I knew even getting up at that crazy hour on 4 hours of sleep, well, even that was possible too.
