I frequently treat the alarm clock as my enemy. Especially if I wasn't disciplined to go to bed early enough. The alarm is an intrusion because it calls me from bed to something that I like less than bed. At least that's how it is tempting to think.

Following on from my last post I need to rethink my response to the alarm clock. Acts 17:25 says that God gives life and breath and everything and that He satisfies our needs. There are lots of different kinds of needs that we have, some very pressing and urgent, some even necessary for life itself. Without trivialising any of those I can say with certainty from Acts 17 that our biggest need is to be satisfied in God and satisfied by God. He is the joy of joys, the satisfaction of satisfactions, the delight of delights.

If you follow this blog regularly you know that I find common evangelical ideas of "quiet time" with God slightly suspect. Because for so many of us we have reduced them to a matter of reading the Bible to educate ourselves about God. Education is OK, but deeply insufficient. I don't want to merely know about God as my end goal, I want to be satisfied in God and delight in Him.

This puts a different spin on my feelings about the alarm clock. If I think it wakens me to a wearisome day of drudgery I will resent it. If I think it wakens me for a time of education about God I will mentally acknowledge its usefulness but may still not enjoy it. If, however, I know that it wakens me to come to Him, enjoy His presence, delight myself in Him and make my heart happy in Him, that makes me feel altogether different about starting the day.

It might even encourage me to be more disciplined about bed time the night before. If I know that ill-discipline dampens my great joy in God I might set an alarm for going to bed as well as one for waking up. Why alarm clocks? I propose that alarm clocks exist for the purpose of exciting joy in God, for wakening anticipation of spending a day with him and for creating time to make our hearts happy in Him.