I read a book a year ago in which the author essentially said, “Nothing good happens after 2AM. If you’re up that late, you’re going to get into trouble. God is a morning person and satan is a night owl.”
OK, I added that last part, but the book made a pretty strong case that after 2AM is the witching hour and that’s a pretty common theme in Christianity. I don’t know where it started, but somewhere along the way, we assumed that doing your quiet time in the morning is worth roughly 37% more than doing it at night.
I think David probably had something to do with it. I think in the book of Psalms he says, “Satisfy me in the morning with your unfailing love and punish all night dwellers as the vampires they truly are in the black Twilight obsessed hearts.” (Not a direct quote, but that was actually the message or John Mayer Christianity version of that verse.)
I don’t know if I agree with that. I have too many friends that turn on their creativity late at night. It’s like they’ve got 5 hour energy in their veins instead of blood and at about midnight they start doing their thing. And if I tried to get them up at 6 to watch the sunset, they’d punch me right in the neck. (Probably the right side of the neck if I had to guess.)
We never look on people that stay up late at night as bastions of spirituality. Admit it, if one of your friends says, “I get up at 5AM to spend time with God and the orange beams of a tickling sunrise that warm the frosted over corners of my soul” you imagine a Thomas Kinkade painting where your friend is in some sort of monk like robe communing directly, if not audibly, with the Lord on high.
And if your other friend says, “Me too. I stayed up until 3AM last night getting close with God,” you automatically think, “Sure you did. Probably stayed up last night watching the show ‘Burn Notice’ on USA and thinking about perhaps getting some jewel toned shirts and grey suits and pretending that talking gravely is all you need to do in order to disguise yourself when you go undercover. Sure you were with God. Right.”
Night owls of Christianity unite. I salute your late night love of God.
Morning people, let’s grab breakfast and pray for those late night sinners.
Which camp are you in?
p.s. and as always, a lowercase s on the word satan is commonly known as “the middle finger of grammar.”
