WHAT GETS YOU OUT OF BED IN THE MORNING?
Written by Daniel Creswell
Read: Philippians 3:17-4:1
What gets you out of bed in the morning? Maybe it’s the smell of a fresh pot of coffee and bacon frying in the skillet? Maybe it’s the hope of accomplishment, achievement or recognition at work? Maybe it’s the idea that the students who sit under your teaching may one day change the world? Or maybe it’s the chance to see your best friend on the school bus?
If you are like me, all of those things had great appeal at one time (Honestly, the smell of coffee and bacon still have quite an exhilarating ability to make me want to throw the covers off and start the day); but none of these have an enduring sustainable impact. This is because none of those things are what we were ultimately created for. Until a person discovers the treasure that will delight and satisfy them forever, they will continually search for that thing that makes life worth living and the bed worth leaving.
King Solomon was Israel’s leader around 970 B.C. after the reign of David. He is universally known as one of the wisest men who has ever lived, drawing the respect and admiration of neighboring nations and famously the Queen of Sheba (I Kings 10:1-13). He also penned the book of Ecclesiastes in which he recounted all of his accomplishments, wealth, even his own wisdom, but found in the end that nothing can truly satisfy a man except the fear of God and the keeping of His commands. (Ecc. 12:13)
It strikes me that one of the wisest men ever to walk the face of the earth wrote these words almost three millennia ago, yet Bono still hasn’t found what he is looking for, and he isn’t alone. Paul, as we have studied in the book of Philippians, addresses this very thing. He would willingly scrap every achievement in his resume and consider it all rubbish in order to know and gain Christ for whom he has suffered the loss of all things. (Phil. 3:7-10)
In our passage for this week, Paul once again contrasts the stark differences between those who seek to find fulfillment and peace here on this earth and those who are citizens of a different, glorified, New Earth (aka Heaven). As we prepare for worship this Sunday, give some attention to your current hopes and dreams. What is getting you out of bed in the morning? The good gifts of coffee and bacon or accomplishments at work and school are wonderful blessings to be enjoyed and celebrated, but they are not an end in themselves. Let’s see past the gifts to the Giver and allow that vision to kickstart every day of our week.
