There are mornings when all we want is to stay asleep

[bluidkiti]

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. —Psalm 90:14

Each new day brings with it the opportunity for a fresh start, and yet, the new day is not always greeted as a fresh start, a delight, a new possibility. There are mornings when all we want is to stay asleep, because waking means we must face an onerous task, or see someone with whom we are at odds, or be reminded of a memory that is too painful to bear.

Not every morning shines before us with the brightness of potentiality. On some days the sun feels like an unwelcome guest, and we long to have the darkness of oblivion close over us again.

What we want most of all is to have our situation altered so that we don’t have to face what stands impermeable before us. But changing our situation would be only a temporary release until some other nasty circumstance presented itself.

Only love—knowing we are loved, knowing that the heart of heaven has not deserted us—can give us any sense of peace and joy on those mornings. It is only steadfast love that is able to keep us steady in the midst of the days of glory and the days of sorrow.

When we want only to pull the covers back up so that we don’t have to face another day, or when we want to throw off the covers to greet the welcome sun, it will always be the love of God that remains unchanged and unchanging.

O God, when my heart is heavy or when my heart is light, let your love be the first thing that brings me to morning consciousness.

The Signposts