(ala Genesis 29.1-20)
We all have those mornings when we’d rather pull covers up to chin, as if some protective shield against another new day. Sure, we have those when we want to leap out of bed, can’t wait to do something — like for thousands the first week of April when they’ll bundle up and head out to hear the ump yel, “Play Ball!” once more. But other days, usually beginning the simple-majority of morns, we lay under the cat-topped covers all too sleepy, all too warm, all to content to choose another round of dreams over to-dos.
The reality of life is that it cannot always be lived as we’d always like, and that sometimes it takes a lot of work to get out of bed and through the day before we get to get back under those covers. (The quandry is how the jangled thoughts of daily destinations and plans keep one clinging to sleep before, and rob you of it after the day.)
Love is always the difference maker.
For seven years Jacob gladly rose to work long, hard days because he was madly in love with Rachel, such that time literally flew by. Every day, despite its drudgery, Jacob had love to live for, and it motivated him to do the thankless because that’s how love so inebreates a person — that they black out to the monotony for the magnificance of life.
Love is always the difference maker — like a light dusting of snow changes a backyard with its late-Winter browned and dirty turf into a wonderland; like two strips of bacon transforms toast, lettuce, tomato, and hame into a club; like the perfect song unheard for years makes the same old commute a road trip.
You may not be able to change your boss or co-workers — when bridges get built or burned — you may not be able to change all the standing appointments, time-stamped or else past due; all the unread e-mails or the blinking light on the desk phone reminding of voice mail messages — not all at once — but there is one thing that can change them all.
Find some way to somehow work for love!
Keep a picture of your kids on your desk. Download a Bible verse to use as your lock screen. Write one chapter of your novel during a break. Put together an epic playlist on your i-Pod to play in the background of your office. Text your wife “I love you” even if she may not get to reply for a couple of hours. Craft a perfect tweet. Doodle a cat who talks theology.
Most of all, whatever it is, do something intentionally to remind you of love, to help you remember the bigger picture, where it’s not about timeclocks and memos but eternity and Truth.
Fling off the covers as wide as gates to rise and meet the day
as the quest of a noble Jedi,
the grail of a heroic knight,
the goal of a center with a wicked slapshot,
the golden crust of the perfect blueberry pie,
the best day of your life
until the next one comes along
and your dreams and your love
are finally realized.
