Why Do You Get Up In the Morning? Why do I get up in the morning?
It’s a question that we need to ask ourselves regularly. It’s a question that I need to ask myself daily.
Why do you get up in the morning? What wakes you up aside from your alarm clock? What, if anything stirs your soul so much so that you are excited (yes excited) to get out of bed?
It’s easy to feel motivated and inspired when life is going exactly the way you planned but if you’re journey is anything like mine, life hasn’t always gone the way you planned it.
The problem arises when you and I find ourselves preferring to stay in bed (because of a lack of motivation) rather than to get up and get going. What is a strong enough motivator to motivate your unmotivated self? I think the secret lies in the fact that a what will never be strong enough to motivate the unmotivated but a WHO most certainly will.
Close Your Eyes. Not to sleep but to see. Really see.
There’s a reason why when you ask people to imagine something, most close their eyes.
There’s a reason why when people meditate to enter a state of deep relaxation and peace, most close their eyes.
There’s a reason why when engaged in a deep kiss, most close their eyes.
There’s a reason beyond sleeping why we close our eyes.
We close our eyes to see what…who truly matters.
Close your eyes to the distractions and the illusions of happiness, security, and stability. Close your eyes to what others are/aren’t doing. Close your eyes to what others have/don’t have what you have/don’t have. Close your eyes to the physical world so that you can open your heart to the inner world.
When I close my eyes for that split second moment, the world is still. I am still. And when I am still, I can hear from the One who stirs my soul and awakens my heart. I used to awaken each day by an alarm to go to work, be the best coworker I could be, do my job, work towards a promotion, get paid every two weeks, be comforted because I had benefits, spend time with family and friends, pay my bills, and try to be a good person. And then I realized that I was merely sleep walking. I was given talent, time, and a task yet I was tricking myself into believing that I was waking up every day to a life that matters.
And then the real alarm went off. The alarm in my heart that whispered “I’ve made you for more.” I believe it’s an alarm that is within all of us though we can barely hear it because we’ve drowned it out with the noise of the world.
Why do I get up in the morning? I used to “get up” for a what. But now I get up for a who. What stirs my soul is the One who calls me by name and has created me for greater things than to just get by and blend it with the world. What stirs my soul is the One who says, “See that homeless person on the street and that new kid at school who has no friends? Yes, he and she are mine.” What stirs my soul is knowing that each day, miracles take place. Impossible situations suddenly become possible. And in the midst of it all, is the One who whispers “you were made for a time as this. You were made to be salt and light. You were made to love.” (see Esther 4:14, Matthew 5:13-16, John 13:34-35)
The truth is, in those very moments in which I find it most difficult to get out of bed and in which the temptation to stay in bed is at its peak, I am confronted with a choice-a choice to make life all about me or to be an instrument in God’s tool kit that is being used to transform the world. Love takes no days off.
“Where there is love, there is life.” I’ve said it in the past. And a few days ago, I learned that Ghandi said it too. Looks like we have something in common…a belief, a conviction, a motivation that gets us up each morning. That when there is love, when we live in love, when we are love, we are alive.
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