Being somewhat of an efficiency fanatic, I have combined my morning stretches with my morning prayers.
First, I bring my knees to my chest and say the Lord’s Prayer. Then I arch my back and say the Apostle’s Creed. Then I do figure eights with my arched back to the Doxology. Next I roll out of bed and touch my toes to Gloria Patrie.
After dodging the pillows thrown at me by my awakening wife, I get flat on my back facing up and do figure eights with my raised legs and say Corporate Confession of Faith base on King David’s confession after he sent Bathsheba’s husband to his doom on the battlefront (Psalm 51).
Then I bring my knees to my chest and do sit ups while reciting Paul’s Poem to Jesus (Philippians 2:6-11). After that, I roll over on my stomach, reverse arch my body, shoulders and legs in the air, torso on the floor and recite the Ten Commandments.
Then I get on my hands and knees and contort my torso and back in every possible way while reciting the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12).
I finish by leaning over the side of the bed, stretching my achilles tendons and saying my morning prayer.
I use the ACTS template: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication.
The Adoration part goes something like this: Great triune God, the Father our creator, Holy Spirit our comforter and counselor and Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, you are everything good and noble, loving, all-powerful, kind, just, magnificent and perfect. Your creation of life and the universe is perfect, from the quantum particles, to the flowers and birds, to human life and the solar system and the farthest quasars. I do not possess words fit for describing the perfection of your creation.
Confession: Dear Lord, I confess that the evil and misery in the world is not caused by you but by human sin, my sin, Adam’s sin from the first bite of the forbidden fruit to the last few minutes of my life. I acknowledge the vastness of my sin in contrast to the vastness of your perfection.
Thanksgiving: Blessed Father, I thank you for not giving up on us, not wiping us out as we deserve, but just the opposite, shepherding us and saving us from our sin by sending your prophets, the Bible, the Holy Spirit and your only son who sacrificed his body for the remission of our sins. The one who was sinless died for forgiveness of the sins of the world, for my sin. For this I am unfathomably thankful. I thank you for the guardian angels who watch over my family every day. I don’t understand exactly how they do it, but I thank them endlessly for their vigilant protection.
Supplication: Dear Lord and Father, I ask that you strengthen my faith hour by hour and lead me on a righteous path of sanctification whereby my desire to sin fades as my love for you and my neighbors increases. I ask for faith and sanctification for me, my family, my church, my country and for the entire world so that wars, disease and power struggles and evil fade from the earth. I ask that you comfort and sustain all those facing physical disease, mental illness, financial and social pressures and bring them the fruits of the spirit: peace, love, joy, patience, self control, gentleness, kindness, faithfulness. I ask all of this in the name of our great savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
At his point, I am physically stretched, spiritually stretched and ready for a really strong cup of Cafe Bustelo coffee in my french press.
The story of Christ is so amazing that it’s hard for me to comprehend. But then the fact of my existence is hard for me to comprehend. Every second is a miracle preceded and followed by another miracle.
I’m not sure how my brain got wired like this but I walk every moment of my life overwhelmed by the miraculous improbability of existence.
In Colossians 1:15 Paul writes, “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things
And this is why Christmas is the biggest celebration of the year. God took bodily form and revealed himself to us, coming into the world as we all do, as a helpless baby, suckling at his mother’s breast. This changed the world forever and marked the defeat of evil and the victory of righteousness.
Every Christmas we are warned that Christmas can also be a time of great sorrow as we think of missed loved ones who are no longer with us. My awesome pastor, Josh Cole of the Covenant Presbyterian Church, harps on the fact that we are repulsed by death because we know in our hearts it is alien and unnatural. Death is a corruption of what God meant to be, caused solely by our sin and disobedience.
But death has been defeated. It was nailed to the cross by our savior Jesus Christ, who spilled his blood for the forgiveness of our sins, reconciling us forever to God through faith and vanquishing death’s finality. All we have to do is believe.
There will be Christmas after Christmas forever in heaven and no one will be missing, every last soul will be there as will God.
Now that’s worth celebrating!
