A fresh Decision Every Day

Join me each day, as I get my devotional thoughts in order via the Upper Room Daily Devotional Guide

This morning, Saturday, I slept in a little later than usual before walking Scout. I got up around 7:00, stiff and reluctant. It was cold - for Florida, my head was thick, and my sinuses were congested. Overall, and certainly without the encouragement of one enthusiastic "let's go!" labradoodle, I'm sure I would have chosen to snuggle back under the covers and drift back out of consciousness.

But I got dressed, downed a small glass of orange juice, got the coffee going, bundled up in my oversize leather jacket and ventured out into the light. It was around 34 degrees outside (not quite the minus three Naomi and Craig woke up to in Connecticut), the sun was beginning to climb in the eastern sky, and we quickly found the rhythm in our step.

It always surprises me just a little how naturally my body and my spirit are rejuvenated when I make the choice to get going. Inertia is compelling, seductive, debilitating and - ultimately - dishonest. But (and way too often) the memory of how good it feels to actually live is not always enough to tip the scale against inactivity. So I have to make a fresh decision, every day, to break out and to engage whatever it is that life has to offer.

My wife, Rebekah, said this in a sermon recently. "Some people like ask When did you make a decision to follow Jesus? When did you become a Christian? When I woke up this morning I made the choice to follow Jesus - I've been doing it every day now for a long time, and I don't intend to ever stop making that decision...."

There's a sense in which we have to get up and get going every single day of our lives; a sense in which we must make a conscious choice to allow the light to infiltrate our experience once again, and we must set a deliberate course. When we do, we're going to be glad we set the alarm again, glad we got out of bed, glad to be alive at something approaching 100%, and glad that we are children of the Great King.