Hitting the Snooze Button

The alarm goes off too early in the morning on Tuesdays. I often hit the snooze button hoping to escape my reality. The truth is I don’t want to get out of bed. It’s comfort and warmth invite me to linger as I lay there trying to block out the inevitable. Eventually I will have to rise up and face what’s set before me. No matter how many times I pound that snooze button, life always ends up beckoning me out.

I’m always amazed at how daily life often exhibits life in the Spirit. It happened again for me this week. My emotions are much like my alarm clock, especially anger. Like lights on the dashboard of a car, they will reveal what’s not firing correctly, if I will pay attention.

Emotions resounded in my body this week and I hit the snooze button. I knew I needed to leave my comforts and face them, but honestly, I just really didn’t want to go there. No matter how many times I pounded that snooze button, Jesus continued to come. His life inside, beckoned me out of the covers of self-protection.

Journal in hand, I drew away to a quiet place. I know Jesus well enough to know, He loves me too much to leave me escaping the emotions. He won’t stop coming after me. After all He came to heal the broken hearted and bind up their wounds.

The feelings inside indicated my reality. There was a broken place still at work.

I’ve come to understand something about broken places. We all have them. They are a result of entering into a world filled with sin. Some of us acknowledge that we have them, some of us don’t. It doesn’t change the facts. If Jesus said He came to heal the broken hearted, we must be broken.

A few years back my husband’s work computer was stolen out of his truck. Months later it was found and returned. While in his possession, the thief had created his own password and entered in his own data. It was on the computer that bore my husband’s name but it was not the original data. We began to slowly remove all the old programming in order to restore the laptop to his original state.

Jesus came to restore my data. I’ve been under the influence of a world of sin, some of it mine, some of it what I received at the hands of others. All the while a thief programmed false information into my mind. It’s not the original data. I’ve been lied to, misled and robbed.

When my emotions get stirred up, the alarm goes off to awaken me. It’s an invitation to have my programming restored. Why do I hit the snooze button? Why is it when the invitation comes I shut it off, hoping to avoid it a little while longer? Sometimes I just don’t want to go there. I prolong my freedom.

Jesus came to heal my brokenness. He came to do a clean sweep of all the false data that has filled my mind. He wants to restore me to my original place.

Healing comes when I allow the resounding of my emotions to invite me out to walk with God. It’s in those moments of telling Him how I feel that I find truth that sets my heart free. What I am feeling indicates what I am hearing. The false data is exposed.

But some days, I just want to hit the snooze button and ignore it all.

It is His constant love that refuses to leave me alone. His Spirit pursues me, wooing me into that place where He and I can meet, it’s the place where the freedom waits.

His truth sets me straight. His voice whispers to me what He & My Father see in me. He reminds me of my reality. I am valued by the Creator of the universe. No one can take that from me. Healing permeates my being as I allow His programming to replace what was previously there.

Life once again beckons me out of the comforts of that which has covered me. His beauty replaces the ashes of my past. He came to heal my broken heart. He came to set me free.