It's 2pm in Japan...

I keep telling myself this, but my body won’t have it. It knows full well I’m in Germany and here it’s 0600 and cold.

I’ll admit it, I’m not good at discipline, so it’s a good job I’m not depending on that to get into God’s good books. I try and get up at six so I can read for an hour (but not pray: that comes when I’m awake and preferably walking around outdoors) before the boys stir. The trouble is that at 6am I don’t like getting up, so I’m inconsistent at best. This morning the lure of the warm bed was too much and I dozed off until 6:50. I gave the boys 15 minutes longer and made a strong cup of tea.

This is when I read stuff: The German church here uses the “Losungen”: a verse from the Old and New Testament each day, and I find it helps to start reading in German even if I then read my bible in English.

The second strong cup of tea starts with the other book, which could be anything. At the moment it’s “The Barbarian Way” by Erwin Raphael Williams and loaned by a friend. I tried reading German books but they defeated me after a couple of mornings. Now they are kept for the afternoon research shift.

The theory behind this madness is that I can then be really awake and ready for the day, and by nine I can be at my desk, brimming with creativity and ready to go. Unfortunately it helps. I do work far better after an early morning than a late one. Besides, Introverts have to get our "Alone time" when we can. Which is why I'll be excusing myself early from our homegroup and setting the alarm for 0600 tomorrow...