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Most people do not wake up. They simply
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become conscious. There is a difference.
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Waking up is an act, an intention, a
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choice made before the world makes its
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claims on your attention. The man who
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wakes without purpose is immediately
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overtaken. His phone, his obligations,
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the anxiety that waited by his bed all
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night. He becomes reactive before his
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feet touched the ground. But the person
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who wakes with purpose, who decides
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before anything else that this day
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belongs to something larger than
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comfort, enters the world as a builder,
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not a scrap of debris. This is why the
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disciplines of the early hours matter.
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Prayer, meditation on scripture,
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silence, a walk, whatever form it takes,
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it is a declaration. My mind belongs to
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me before it belongs to the chaos. David
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knew this. He wrote, "In the morning,
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Lord, you hear my voice. In the morning,
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I lay my requests before you and wait
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expectantly. Not in the evening, not in
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the gaps between obligations. In the
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morning, when the day is still raw, when
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you still have a choice about who you
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will be." The Stoics understood this,
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too. Though they lacked what we possess,
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the actual presence of the Holy Spirit,
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but they grasped the principle, the
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morning is a fortress. It is the hour
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when resistance is lowest and intention
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is highest. Here is what happens when
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you claim those hours. Your entire day
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not because you become superhuman,
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but because you have already decided
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what matters. You have already knelt.
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You have already confessed your
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dependence. When temptation comes, and
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it will, you are not meeting it for the
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first time. You have already met it at
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the throne of grace. The question is not
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whether you have time for discipline in
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the morning. The question is whether you
