Throwing out why: another call to devos

I have a confession to make to you that may send you running in the other direction, never to visit this blog again. I love mornings, I am a cheery bathrobe wearing, coffee loving, oatmeal making morning person. There I said it. Also I am weirdly fascinated by morning routines. If it weren't a weird question, I would regularly ask people about their morning routine. Morning routines typically fall into two categories: The lingerers and the leavers. The lingerers (which is where I fall) like a good couple hours to get their day in order, make breakfast, take a shower, do some quiet time and build a solid base to their day. The leavers have calculated down to the second how much time it takes them to do the bare minimum amount of a.m. prep needed to leave the house. Then they take that time and use it to set their alarm for the last possible minute.

I used to have a morning routine that involved getting out the door, but now I have a baby and a preschooler and all bets are off. It's not new that you need to put God into your morning routine. Honestly, for so long I have used my kids and their completely unpredictable a.m. shenanigans as an excuse. I was never faithful with my quiet time before kids but now it's ridiculous. I actually feel like I avoid it intentionally. And often if I am up first I choose to do the dishes, turn on the Today Show, hop on facebook, fold laundry and all manner of other tasks before I meet with God.

Why in the name of bacon and eggs do I struggle to put God before dishes and Matt Lauer in the morning? Why is it so hard to line up my actions with my beliefs? I have thought about this for a while and come up with all manner of possible answers. In the end though I consistently land in the same place. I have found deep wisdom and I will share it with you here and now. Here goes: A lot of times in life "why" doesn't matter. Groundbreaking stuff, isn't it? Why it's hard for me to make time for God isn't near as important as how I am going to do it anyway. I think sometimes we use an unanswered "why" as an excuse to avoid things we are called to do in our lives.

Why is it so hard for me to stop eating fast food and go for a walk? Doesn't matter do it anyway

Why is it so hard for me to turn off the TV and talk to my spouse? It's a button, push "off" and talk about your day.

Why is it so hard for me to stop playing angry birds? You need to leave this question for the archaeologists that study our culture a thousand years from now. No one knows the answer and pondering it is futile. Stop putting your self-worth in golden eggs.

So I am taking the suck it up approach. I moved my bible app to first place on my phone and I left the dishes in the sink. I signed up for a very easy and quick reading plan, because I know that I need to crawl before I run. I did still make the coffee first, for me quiet time is better with coffee and since God made java, I feel he understands. The long and the short of it is, I stopped making excuses and I am doing it anyway.

All conditions don't have to be perfect when you meet with God, and perfect attendance isn't all that important. I almost didn't want to write this because I feel like the world doesn't need another "do your devos" blog post. But what we do need is time in our lives to learn to love to being in the company of our Father. Maybe, if you are like me, you need to fall in love with his presence again. So instead of feeling guilty right now, maybe we can feel a passionate resolve to rediscover the beauty of relationship and connection.