How do you start your day?
Mine usually begins with hitting the snooze button at least once, but more often twice. However, the tasks of the day soon begin to seep into my consciousness, and I start to mull over the hours ahead. Most days, before my feet have even hit the floor, I’ve begun to strategise, to set my agenda. I start by praying for my work, which involves meeting with people. However, if I’m honest, my prayers often focus on inviting God’s work and presence into my activity and agenda.
GOD’S DAY IS NOT OUR DAY
In our human accounting of time, our day begins with our activity. It starts when we wake up, get up, and get about our business. In our rhythm of life, there is morning, then evening. There is working, then resting.
In God’s accounting of time in Genesis 1, however, this rhythm is notably reversed. There is evening, then morning. In this telling of time, the day begins not with human activity, but with a period marked by human inactivity. There is resting and sleeping, then waking and working.
Commenting on this, Eugene Peterson makes the following observation.
The Hebrew evening and morning sequence conditions us to the rhythms of grace. We go to sleep and God begins his work. As we sleep, he develops his covenant. We wake and are called out to participate in God’s creative action. We respond in faith and work. But grace is always previous. Grace is primary. We wake into a world we did not make, into a salvation we did not earn. Evening: God begins, without our help, his creative day. Morning: God calls us to enjoy and share and develop the work he initiated.’(i)
LIVING IN THE CADENCE OF CREATION
It’s a great temptation to think that nothing would happen in the world, our church, or in people’s lives apart from our strategies, agendas, and activity. But the cadence of creation reminds us that we are not the primary movers and shakers. The growth of the kingdom of God in the world and in the lives of people does not begin with our own efforts, but with God’s. Our work and ministry is not primary or central; rather, our work is participation and response.
Each new morning when we wake up, we are invited simply to join in with all God has been doing and is continuing to do in his world, to cooperate with his plans and purposes for the people we serve. When we get up and get busy, we do so in response to God’s prior gracious activity in our own lives and in the lives of others.
So, what would our lives look like if we lived intentionally in this rhythm of creation? What would happen if we started to see our days beginning with the evening hours when we rest and sleep rather than the hours when we wake and work? What does the evening/morning sequence have to teach us about our lives in ministry?
Here are some brief reflections.
ATTENTIVENESS
First, the pattern of the Genesis day invites us to cultivate greater attentiveness. In ministry, it’s all too easy to begin with our own strategies for gospel growth, or with our own agendas for the people we serve. However, the cadence of creation tells us that our primary posture should be to pay attention to God’s agenda, to where and how he is working—in our communities and churches.
Questions of primary importance become questions like these.
Where is God working here?
What specifically is he doing?
How is he speaking?
Do I have a role in this work? If so, what is it?
Instead of launching into activity, our lives become a response to God’s work in his world.
SURRENDER
Second, the Genesis day pattern helps us surrender our lives to God. Our natural instinct is to want to be in control. However, the evening/morning rhythm reminds us that in the proper posture of Christian ministry, we are not inviting God to join us in our work, our strategies, or agendas. Rather, we are submitting ourselves to his. Seeing our work as participation and response invites us to loosen our grip on our tendency to seek control. This approach enables us to grow in humility before the Lord. So, these become important questions for us.
Where am I unhealthily wedded to my own plans for the people and church I serve?
In which areas am I seeking control?
What might deeper surrender to God look like for me?
REST
Lastly, this pattern invites us to rest. One of the primary reasons we find it hard to rest is that we think the work depends too much on us. We think that if we stop things will fall apart, or significant things won’t be accomplished. However, the Genesis rhythm tells us that when we begin our evening’s rest, the day is not ending. It’s just getting started! As we sleep, God is working. He’s at work in the lives of the people we’re concerned about. He’s at work throughout the world, calling his people to participate with him as he builds his kingdom. So, instead of going to bed with a heavy heart, burdened by all the things you’ve left unresolved or undone, what about a different mindset? Why not go to bed with a heart full of anticipation? And as you rise each day, why not remind yourself that as you slept, God was at work? He’s always active . . . loving, restoring, forgiving, changing people, calling them into participation and relationship.
The cadence of creation reminds us that gospel ministry and gospel growth does not begin with our own efforts or activity but with God’s. It calls us to see our work as participation in God’s plans; it calls us to join the work of grace he is already doing. It invites us to be attentive, submissive to his ways, and expectant.
So, I invite you to do something a little different this evening. As you go to bed, thank God for the work he will be doing as you rest. Go to bed with anticipation for what the following day will bring.
And as you live in this rhythm of grace, let me leave you with a final question.
How will you begin your day?
(i) Eugene Peterson, “The Good for Nothing Sabbath,” Christianity Today, April 1994.