| Sunny Side Up Nov.27, 2002 �2002, Kathleen Gibson Never wake a sleeping columnist Six days a week I�m up early. But most Saturdays I sleep in, catching up on any sleep deficit I�ve accumulated the previous week. At 7:30 one recent Saturday I had miles to go before I woke. Then the phone beside the bed�vintage, loud�shrieked a wake-up call, and rudely tipped me over the finish line. I hate being caught sleeping�it makes me feel lazy, unworthy. My mind galloped. Should I leap out of bed before answering and hope to be asked, �Sorry, are you still in bed?� to which I could answer an offended sounding, �Are you kidding?� Or should I stay under covers, reach for the phone and pray for the question �Did I get you out of bed?� I could deny that with integrity too. The right query with the right action could save my reputation. I stayed abed, reached out, picked up what I hoped was the phone, and grunted a groggy hello. It was one of my prayer partners. �Joyinthemorningcheerful� is her email address and she�s not kidding. �Oh, were you still sleeping?� Happy, Happy, Happy. Sunk. �Yeah.� Her apology was not heartfelt, I feel. She�s one of that disgusting class of people who think everyone should be �joyinthemorningcheerful�. �I have something to share with you.� �Can it wait till later? Please? I�m not finished sleeping.� She wasn�t finished �sharing.� �Okay, then. I�ll just lay here and listen.� She sang a song to me, her own tune set to scripture. At ten o�clock I would have loved it. She read me some of her morning Bible verses she thought would inspire me. I can�t remember which. She told me something about God, but I forget what she said about him too. I�m sure it was nice. My thoughts weren�t. I recalled Proverbs 27:14. �If you loudly greet a friend too early in the morning, he will count it as a curse.� I love my prayer partners. They�re a gift from God. But so are my Saturday sleep-ins. If I had only one phone, I may try the tactic of a writer friend. I called him late one morning, at what I thought was an entirely respectable hour. The phone rang several times; there was a tremendous clatter, silence, then, �Hello.� �Hey! You okay? That sounded painful!� �Oh, so sorry. The phone dropped when I was taking it out of the fridge.� �PARDON ME?� �I put it there so I could sleep in. But I was getting up anyway. It was time to let it out.� Yes, I�d try that if I didn�t have so many phones. 'Joyinthemorningcheerful' emailed a few hours after our first conversation. �Here are the verses I shared with you,� she typed, �for reference, in case of random memory. Smirk, Smirk.� Awake, I appreciated them. Especially Romans 8:38 which says that nothing, ever, is able to separate us from God�s love. Not even, I hope, sleepy uncharitable thoughts about too cheerful, too early prayer partners. If these words inspired thoughts of your own, email them to [email protected] |