Unearthly Hours

Friday morning was an extra early one in our household. We had reason to rise at 4:00 a.m. When the alarm clock sounded it seemed as though we had just retired. Nevertheless, there were responsibilities to be met so movement began. After a few minutes I stepped into my our son’s bedroom to make sure he was up and getting ready for the day. He was getting ready. I am still not sure he was awake. After greeting him with a “good morning buddy” I heard a soft mumbling about the oddity of people who are cheerful at that time of the day.

Those events reminded me of an e-mail I received a number of years ago from my friend, Glen Miller. Glen is one of those men who makes you tired just by looking at the time on the e-mails he sends. It is not at all unusual to see 3:30 a.m. on the top of an e-mail. That’s after he has awakened and gone about the other more pressing duties. Someone wrote to Glen and accused him of keeping some “unearthly hours.” I think our son would contend that 4:00 a.m. is an “unearthly hour” (unless we are getting up at that time to go deer hunting!)

All of that prompts me to blog about the need for God’s children to spend some “unearthly hours.” I’m not terribly concerned whether it is early morning or mid afternoon. I cannot find anything in Scripture that tells me 4 in the morning is more spiritual than 8 at night. What I would argue is that time spent in communion with our Lord is far more valuable than any earthly activity.

As I read through the Psalms it seems evident that David learned the value of such “unearthly hours”. In Psalm 6:6 he writes about his personal anguish which caused sleepless nights as he struggled with the trials he was experiencing. In Psalm 63:1 he speaks of a desire to commune with the Lord which causes him to seek the Lord early and the fact that remembering God upon his bed and meditating upon Him in the night watches. In Psalm 119:147-148 we see David recording the fact that which once was prompted by despair had become the joyful discipline of his life. We see, it seems evident, a deliberate practice of keeping some “unearthly hours.”

May God grant sweet communion with Him as we keep those hours.