Living in a "redemptive conciousness"

It's a misty, mild morning here in west/central Florida. Walking our neighborhood and around the golf course, emerging morning half-light, shapes shifting as they come out of the fog, has an ethereal water-color feel to it today. There's a sense of expectancy in the air and it's more than simply "Ten days before Christmas..."

Under our tree, Rebekah placed the first two presents. I have a huge surprise gift I'm working on, but it's not quite ready for wrapping. Our big gift has already gone to Heifer International (that right, piggies!) and a family at the Beth El Mission will be making music together on a good guitar. Christmas is emerging like the morning did today, a piece at a time as we sketch in the details.

A slow start in the early hours is good for me. Maybe it takes me longer than most folk to get focused and centered... or maybe too many of us have forgotten that we can? But I honestly can't imagine being able to bring much to the table in the way of purpose and creativity if I slide out of bed and directly to work without taking the time to at least aim myself in the right direction!

Here's what I have discovered. If I miss my devotional interlude because I "Just don't have the time today", then the thirty minutes or so that I saved is pretty much shot by lunch anyway.

Here's the math as I see it. Say I have eight hours of productive work to do, and I need to be at my desk by 9:00 AM in order to get the time in. Then I sleep late, get caught in an early phone call, lose track of time - whatever, and it's 9:05 and I have yet to spend a (conscious) moment with God. I can:

• A) Get to work immediately in response to the sense of urgency. Or...
  
• B) Still take 30 minutes to gather my thoughts and spend time in meditation and prayer.

If I chose "B", then the less than eight and a half hours remaining are typically more productive and creative. If I chose "A", then I may have more raw time available, but by lunch I typically find that I'm not making much headway and I'm actually further behind.

It turns out that time itself need not rule me. When I align myself with the fundamental nature of the Creator - which is creativity and the generation of life - then concepts such as time and other limitations of the temporal order are less restrictive and tend not to be so pre-conclusive.

I pray that we all live this day in what I have decided to call a "redemptive consciousness."

Love and blessings - DEREK