Good morning…
When we moved into the tiny, Pennsylvania town-of-my-dreams in the third week of June in 2001, our kids were six, four, two, and two weeks old. As God had planned our placement perfectly, my next door neighbor, Betsy, was also nurturing a two year old and a two week old. Betsy and I became fast, deep-seeded friends, a friendship fueled by our frequent morning walk-and-talks.
Here is how it worked for us moms of toddlers and nursing babes. We would plan to walk each day at 6:00 am. When I woke, I would turn on my front porch light. When she woke, she would flip on her light too. I could see her porch light from our bathroom and she could see my porch light from her bedroom. If a porch light stayed dark after 6:03 am, we would climb back into bed, figuring “A rough night at the Allens,” or “Betsy is finally asleep after being up all night.” But if both of our front porch lights were on, we would meet outside in the dark, donning our bedheads and tennies, and we would walk-and-talk around the town, while our families slept, before our husbands left for work.
Why do I tell you this story today? Because my intention is to schedule the porch light of our blog posts to come on each morning at 3:00 am. After our summer hiatus, I am just getting back into the regular rhythm of crafting a daily message in the early morning dark. I wake when God wakes me, and at the end of my life-giving, journalling prayer time, I post a fresh thought for our online community and, as often as possible, I schedule it to come to you at 3:00 am the following morning. Working one day ahead allows our everyday blog to develop consistency. If ever the porch light of my pen is off at 3:03 am, you can climb back into bed figuring, “A rough night at the Allens” means Sue’s sleeping in.
I so value our walk-and-talks around the tiny town of our shared lives that my front porch light will be on at 3:00 am, as often as possible. I am fueled by the frequency of our fast, deep-seeded friendship. Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived. My dear friends, I’m not writing anything new here. This is the oldest commandment in the book, and you’ve known it from day one. It’s always been implicit in the Message you’ve heard. On the other hand, perhaps it is new, freshly minted as it is in both Christ and you—the darkness on its way out and the True Light already blazing! (1 John 2:6b-8, MSG).
…Sue…
