"It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep." Psalm 127:2 KJV
"Vain" Dictionary definition - Not yielding the desired outcome; fruitless; lacking substance or worth
"It is a waste of time to stay up late and get up early trying to make a living. God takes care of His children, even when they are sleeping." English Version for the Deaf(EVD)
"waste of time" Dictionary definition - the devotion of time to a useless activity
Anyway you look at it, it's not good.
Now there is nothing wrong with getting up early and staying up late. The error comes in the motivation for doing so.
David says in Psalm 119:147-48 "I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried: I hoped in thy word. Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word. KJV
"I got up early in the morning to pray to you. I trust the things you say. I stayed up late at night to study your word." EVD
It is the phrase "trying to make a living" that is the problem, those early morning hours and late nights spent merely to make money or to worry about how to make more money to pay for what we think we need.
"God cares for His children even while they are sleeping" What a comfort to know that God never sleeps and we don't even have to be awake for Him to be taking care of us. He not only is awake, but He is working on our behalf-each of us individually-providing, arranging, producing and connecting all the elements of which our lives consist.
Why are we so foolish then to perpetuate the belief that we must provide for ourselves, working longer, harder, faster, more efficiently, driving ourselves into the ground. Certainly it is a God-given responsibility to work, but that work is to be done to glorify Him, not for the specific end of supplying our own needs. Our very breath is a gift from God. It can be taken from us with one word from our Father. So also, our well-being, our money, our happiness, our health, our productivness, our pleasure, our success, ALL that we are and have is given by God.
I find great rest and peace in knowing that I AM NOT IN CHARGE OF ANYTHING!
All I have to do is the next right thing and God will even show me what that is if I am looking at Him for direction.
Early mornings? Late nights?
Spend them with God, not in the service of yourself.
Any words you post can and will be used against you in a court of law:
"So I will blog on, not for the sake of blogging alone, but because I must write in order to remember that what has been given must be used or lost"
a friend is praying
that you will regather
that which has been lost
recapture the joy
that escaped with time.
may you rest.
and write.
for you are
not too unlike me:
your soul
is healthiest
when it snatches a moment
(or two)
to write.
with love.
(lots of it)
jawol! write on!
(please)
In response to you both, I am humbled by your interest in my absent feeble words. I will blog, I will.
It is such a shame that desire cannot so easily be translated into action. Were that our truly worthy desires could be but thought and the action performed. How many friends would be contacted, how many "I love you's" said, how many words put on paper as a permanent tribute to the turning of the earth of our minds and the planting of the seeds of thought and purpose, not senseless, not wasted, just scattered and shared to grow and be harvested.
Thanks for the encouragement. I will write soon.
swy
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