Clay in the Hands

Last night, the plan was to be in bed and asleep before 11 – which does not always happen.  But last night it did.  We were in bed just after 10:40 or so.  And I am not completely sure, but I think I was asleep when the first high pitched chirp came about 11:15.  I rolled over hoping I did not hear it.  But a few minutes later – – there it was again.

I knew it was not going to go away.  The batteries in the smoke detector above our bedroom door were obviously low prompting the friendly, high pitched screech that would not be ignored.  So . . . I got up, slipped into flip flops and headed to the garage to get a ladder.  Luckily, there were fresh batteries in a drawer in the kitchen, so 10 minutes after the initial chirp, I was back in bed – problem solved.

Unfortunately, now I could not go back to sleep.  Things ran through my mind like stampedes coming and going from every direction.  I am not sure what time I finally drifted off to sleep but it was not easy dragging myself back out of bed this morning.

I am glad the smoke detector has the safety feature to alert me when the batteries are low.  A smoke detector is of no value if it loses power to do its job.  But without a friendly reminder, it would go unnoticed with a dangerous assumption that all is OK.

Don’t you wish our lives had such a notification system.  Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to rely on a friendly, high pitched chirp when we are running low on energy.  Some of us do a pretty good job monitoring ourselves and our energy levels.  But for the rest of us, we tend to go about our daily lives adding more and more to our plates with little regard to the strain it is putting on our spiritual lives.

That is why it is so important to set time aside to pray – to read – to be still with God.

So this morning – consider this a friendly chirp.

Check your batteries.