Your First Daily Test

“The moment the alarm goes off is the first test; it sets the tone for the rest of the day.  The test is not a complex one: when the alarm goes off, do you get up out of bed, or do you lie there in comfort and fall back to sleep?  If you have the discipline to get out of bed, you win – you pass the test.  If you are mentally weak for that moment and you let that weakness keep you in bed, you fail.  Though it seems small, that weakness translates to more significant decisions.  But if you exercise discipline, that too translates to more substantial elements of your life.” – Jocko Willink, Task Unit Commander, SEAL Team Three, Task Unit Bruiser in his book Extreme Ownership

The only way you will have time to get the extra, truly impactful things done in your life is to make time by waking up early.  If you get up with the common man, you will accomplish what the common man accomplishes daily.

That of course lacks the eternal perspective.  In 1 Corinthians 9:26-27, Paul teaches on his spiritual discipline: ”Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.  No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

Paul exerts purposeful control over his body; he does not follow the urges and weaknesses of his body into the sin which will further weaken him and disqualify him for the prize of heavenly glory promised to those that abide in Jesus Christ.

Am I saying that hitting snooze or rolling over in the fartsack is the precursor to an ungodly life, by no means, but it is the first of many tests of your self-discipline every day and that can have lasting impacts on your spiritual discipline.  While at the same time, we praise God for His grace that covers the many times we fail in our spiritual discipline.

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