The Daylight Savings Time Challenge

On Sunday the clocks fell back an hour with eastern savings time. The clock on my computer made the adjustment automatically. But all the clocks in our house were off by an hour. That included the internal clocks that drive the awakenings of my family and me.

With the time change, and by rising early, I had expected to have an hour to myself that morning. It did not work out that way. Before I could get anywhere, my son emerged for breakfast, one daughter wandered in for a warm snuggle and even my self-described "not a morning person" wife was up and at 'em.

Rising an hour earlier than the rest of my house is what I now call, "The Daylight Savings Time Challenge." The challenge is to leave my alarm clock on last week's time and rise when it chimes. Last Saturday, that would have been 6:05. Sunday, with the time change, it was 5:05.

In large part, the challenge is owed to a conversation between Bob Edwards and Garrison Keillor during an interview on XM radio’s XMPR. Edwards asked how Keillor, an incredibly busy man could ever find time to write so prolifically. Keillor responded that he rises an hour earlier than the rest of his house - "If you get up an hour early, you can write a book."

The Edwards' question and Keillor's answer can be plugged into any number of conversations:

Q: Where do you find time to work on your masters? A: I get up an hour early.

Q: Where do you find time to run? A: I get up an hour early.

Q: Where do you find time to pray for your children? A: I get up an hour early.

The changing of the clocks seemed a good time to ease into it. I would just leave my watch set to Daylight Savings Time and let my body take advantage of that extra hour in the morning.

I find it’s natural to stay up late doing unimportant things (Sudoku, fantasy baseball). But, I won’t get up early unless it’s important. When I was a boy, I would rise well before first light on bitter mornings to hunt. But rarely would I ever do the same to study. Hunting was important to me. Studying not so much. These days, I’d fallen into a similar dilemma in my quiet times with God. I would rise early to run or workout. Exercise was important to me. But what about time with God?

On Sunday, Pastor Josh Christiansen (http://www.orlandocommunitychurch.org/) described how we fall into a devil's trap when we let a good thing (like running) be done to the exclusion of the most important thing. Early in Mark's gospel, we learn of something that was important to Jesus.

Mark 1:35 In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.

So the changing of the clocks seems like a good time to put some things back in order – the Daylight Savings Time Challenge.