Wake Up, Look Up

Hello, everyone. Thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch. And in today's episode, we're talking about productivity hacks, and we're asking the question, is God a morning person? This is prompted by an article I read in The Wall Street Journal about how the 4AM wake up call isn't just for CEOs anymore.

It has become cliche, the super CEO leader of a Fortune hundred company in The United States that seemingly never sleeps. Bought Disney's Bob Iger, Apple's Tim Cook. They're famous for early morning rising and attacking the day, seemingly having more energy in reserve than any of us have in our day, beginning their day before we are even awake. And not just beginning it, but crushing it before we are even awake. But this idea is going more and more mainstream.

Maybe you saw the recent viral video trend, led by a guy named Ashton Hall who showed himself at, like, three, 03:30 in the morning taking ice baths, wiping banana peels on his face. I mean, just having this incredible morning routine very early, it prompted a whole spoof of comedy, posting of people showing themselves doing ridiculous things at all hours of the day. But there is this idea that if you really wanna be successful, if you really wanna be a go getter, you need to get up early. You need to adopt the kind of the main tenant of hustle culture, which is when everyone else is sleeping, you are earning. This is rooted in the American idea of hustle, the American idea of hard work, and it's becoming a part of identity and self worth culture.

You wanna be somebody? Get up. You wanna be somebody important? Achieve early in the morning. The question, though, is how should we think about this as Christians?

Is this a trend we should adopt or one we should resist? Well, the answer is a little more nuanced than you might think. I mean, on the one hand, the Bible does seem to be ahead on this. The Bible talks a lot about early morning spiritual productivity. For example, Jesus often got up early in the morning to pray.

You could see this in places like Mark one thirty five, where before anyone else is doing anything, even before the world is kind of waking up, Jesus is spending time with the father. That's instructive because Jesus, of course, enjoyed the closest relationship to God any man ever has, and it seems to be that the morning was where he's did most of his work. The book of Proverbs, wisdom literature in Proverbs 31 tells us that the virtuous woman, part of what makes her virtuous, is she gets up early in the morning. She's attacking the day. Again, that's long before Bob Iger or Tim Cook.

You've got the virtuous woman of Proverbs 31 hustling in the morning. And the Bible also tells us that late nights can be spiritually risky. Check out first Thessalonians five. In fact, one of the most instructive quotes I read in the Wall Street Journal article was a CEO who said sin thrives at night. And he didn't even mean that spiritually.

He just meant that's when we tend to do our worst eating, our worst, entertainment choices, and our worst spiritual choices. The Bible seems to affirm that. So on the one hand, you've got Jesus getting up early in the morning, wisdom literature telling us to get up early in the morning and warning us, the Bible, about late nights. So the Bible seems to be pro productive mornings. On the other hand, there are some things here to worry about.

And mainly, it is that idea of identity that the Bible does warn us about seeing work or even labor, seeing productivity as a way to gain our identity. For example, in Psalm one twenty seven, the psalmist says that a sign that you are trusting God is that you sleep a little, that you get good rest because you know, ultimately, your hope is in God working for you and not you working for you. Jesus even calls us to rest. I mean, Jesus said, come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. My yoke is easy and my burden is light.

That's in the gospel of Matthew. He didn't say, come to me all you who are tired, and I'll teach you how to get even more productivity in the morning. So how do we hold these things together? Well, the answer to that is pretty simple. The Bible teaches us to work from rest, not for rest, to work from identity, not for identity.

If you're waking up early in the morning because you desire to spend time with God before the distractions of the day hit you. You're not earning. You are connecting. That's very different. So the question of should I get up in the early morning and be productive is really one of why are you doing it.

The Bible says whether you eat or drink, first Corinthians 10, do it for the glory of God. Well, I think the same applies here. If you're getting up early in the morning because you desire God, you wanna hear his heart for you, you know he loves you at night just like he loves you in the morning, but you want to get off to a good start with him, that's a great reason. If you're getting up early in the morning because you're trying to be some superhuman productive person because you worry deep down, you might not be loved or valued if you don't, You should sleep in for the glory of God. Getting up early might just be toxic for you.

Remember that God's love for us is based in the productive work of his son, Jesus Christ, his life, death, and resurrection, and not in what you and I do to impress him. Hey. Thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up. If you enjoyed it, please help us get the word out by sharing it with someone you think might benefit from it. And while you're here, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get further content or even download the CCC app where you'll find even more resources to help you grow in your faith and relationship with Jesus Christ.

Have an article you’d like Pastor Zach to discuss? Email us at wakeup@ccchapel.com!