Why I am going to get out of bed this morning

As autumn slides unrelentingly into winter, getting up in the morning gets harder and harder. The air outside is cold and under my blankets it is both warm and uncomplicated by the demands of the day. As the comfort of my sleep is interrupted by the sound of my alarm, I ponder ignoring it and instead remaining in bed all day. I need a reminder of why I get up in the morning.

I get up in the morning because I can. Not everyone gets to and it is a blessing.

I get up in the morning because there is beauty in this world that God has provided for me to enjoy. It might be the feeling of winter sunshine on my skin, a moment to catch my breath and look around, a joke with a colleague, a cup of coffee, a small child who takes my hand as we walk along, or the feeling when I reach the end of my run. My day is filled with the blessings of the Good Creator who has given them to me to delight in and praise him for.

I get up in the morning because God has given me work to do. Sometimes my work is small things - taking a small person seriously because I know they are a human made in the image of God, listening to teenage angst and responding (hopefully) with joy and wisdom not sarcasm and grumpiness, cooking dinner, writing a report or faithfulness in administrative tasks for life or work. These things are small, but they are important in God’s kingdom, where the last are first and the first are last. Sometimes in God’s timing, he gives me big jobs to do - I have to address lots of people and speak clearly and faithfully of who he is and what he has done for them. Or a hard but important thing to say in a meeting, where I have to steal myself, take confidence in my identity in Christ and then say the thing I think needs to be said. Sometimes it is a difficult conversation to have with a colleague or friend or taking a moment to be with someone who needed God’s presence a little closer that day. In all these things, I know that I am part of God’s redemptive work to bring about his kingdom here on earth; a kingdom of justice, peace, hope and love. And so I get up in the morning because it is a privilege that God has given me the opportunity to be a part of that work, and in all the things I do whether small or great, I have this task to do.

I get up in the morning because I don’t know how the Spirit will be at work today. Romans 8 reminds us that it is the same Spirit that raised Christ Jesus from the dead that is living in us. Because I know that the power of God is active in my life, and the actions I do, the words I speak and the way I show Christ to the people around me can and do have consequences that ripple into eternity. I cannot know the significance of any individual action that I will make today, but God does. I get up in the morning, trusting that the Spirit will be at work, and that in God’s grace I may see that happen.

I get up in the morning because I am a person made in the image of God, redeemed by Christ and with important work to do in his world. I get up in the morning, right after I hit snooze.