The Big Moment

What is the most important moment of your day? Is this moment predictable and repetitive? Is there something you can do to make this important moment your best moment of every day?

I believe that the most important moment of your day is your first moment of awareness when you wake up each morning.
It is that moment when all the stimuli of your world come rushing into your mind demanding an audience with the one they insist must take control.

Pushing these stimuli back and welcoming Jesus as the only true stimulus is the most critical thing we can do each day.

Here is how author C.S. Lewis describes this moment in his book Mere Christianity.
"Listening to that other Voice
That is why the real problem of the Christian life comes when people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment
you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each
morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting
that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings
and frettings; coming in out of the wind.
We can only do it for moments at first. But from these moments the new sort of life will be spreading through our
system: because now we are letting Him work at the right part of us. It is the difference between paint, which is merely
laid on the surface, and a dye or stain which soaks right through."

I remember reading about the life of George Mueller. For many, many years this man of faith led an orphanage in Great Britain that managed to care for thousands of orphans without asking for help. George Mueller asked God and God helped.
Mueller had a habit of walking in the woods near the orphanage each morning. It was said of him that he would not come back to the orphanage until he was genuinely happy. Sounds almost impossible doesn't it?

A friend named Mike Wells taught me to start each day putting my hand over my heart and saying the words "Jesus, you are welcome here." Little did I know how profound that habit is for spiritual health and happiness.
Look back to your first moment today. Who got your first and best attention? If it was not Jesus, you missed the most important moment of the day. What did you say to all those pressing stimuli that wanted you to take control? If you took control because of their demands, is it any wonder you are tired and stressed by 10 A.M.?

The good news is, Jesus was there then and Jesus is still there now. Welcome Him now and let the burden of control lift.