It’s 4:30 am. Do you know where your children are?

No, really, it’s 4:30am and I’m wide awake. My children are snuggled deep under the thick covers of la-la land, Shauna is snuggled somewhere deeper still, and I… am not. Glory’s hamster “Bug” is awake, though, manically gnawing on some bone-dry food pellet with nothing but day old water sharing a bowl with cedar shavings to wash it down. He’s nocturnal. Me, not so much. Why I’m awake, I cannot fathom. Or can I?

I had a brainslam of a migraine last night, and self-medicated about 2:30am. Or was it 12:30? Huh. Not sure. So I have a fuzzy head, and a supernatural peace, a’la Tylenol with Codeine. God works in mysterious ways. Usually the little white pills send me packing till morning and leave me feeling quite refreshed (typically I’m not a deep sleeper unless my nighttime stupor is drug-induced).

But here I am, atypically awake. Blinkblink. My conclusion? It must be God. For one thing, five minutes after waking up I had a little epiphany about a big hurdle I’ve been worried about in ministry. Just a half-twist of perspective that made a huge difference: “Oh. That’s right, I could do it that way! Which would take the pressure right off. Thanks, God!”

That realization alone is probably worth getting up for cause it will save (or grant) me more sleep later on.

I feel no ethereal urge to battle for my kid’s souls tonight. I’m not getting a bizarre vision for some lady I’ve never met ironing clothes through her tears accompanied by supernatural insight into her life. I’m clacking away at this blog post, hoping that my words will resonate with some of you. Cause I do believe in “the divine encounter approach” to personal devotions, which, in a nutshell, underscores the fact that when God calls the meeting, whenever God calls it, the time will be meaningful. I’m sitting here for a reason, people.

My only request is that you take my nocturnal musings to heart and pay attention to those little (or large) tugs from God’s Spirit. They can come any time, anywhere, for a multitude of reasons (only checking in with God will solve that mystery). When God says, “Hey, I want to spend some time with you,” my advice?

Say yes.