A few years ago, I learned a lesson about the faithfulness of God, a lesson that I will probably never forget. I would like to be able to tell you it was due to something earth-shakingly significant, but it was actually quite mundane. That was the beauty of it.
I had a clock radio that I used to get up to every morning. At one point, the alarm function ceased working, but it wasn’t really a problem because I would generally wake up in time to get to work by 9:30, and I worked flex-time. But one evening I realized that I needed to get up early the next morning (no later than 6:00) and had no alarm clock. The clock part still worked fine, but the alarm didn’t work. And at that time, there was no place in Rolla Missouri to buy an alarm clock at 11:00 p.m.
In desperation, I told God that I really needed to awake at 6:00, and asked Him to wake me. My faith made mustard seeds look gargantuan. The next morning, when my eyes opened, I was looking directly at the clock radio, and it said 6:00 on the money. The alarm had not gone off, but there I was wide-awake. Hmmm! Pretty neat, I thought, but was it for real?
So over the next few days, I performed an experiment. Each night, I would ask God to wake me at a particular time the next morning. To make the experiment more robust, I would randomly vary the time I wanted my wake-up call. Each morning, when I awoke, I would look at the clock, and it was exactly the time I had requested.
This went on for several months, and every morning, I would awake at the exact time I had requested the night before. I didn’t always get up at that time, but without fail, I would wake up at the exact time I asked for Him to wake me – until one day.
It was a late Saturday night, and I asked God to wake me at 6:00 the next morning. I had to finish my class lesson, and was leading worship that morning, so I needed to get to church early to get ready for that. So I went to sleep, confident that He would wake me at 6:00. When I awoke, I rolled over and to my horror saw that it was 7:00 instead of 6:00. I was shaken, and in my panic to get ready quickly, I skipped breakfast and rushed up to church, the whole time wondering why He had not awakened me as before.
I ran up to the church door, grabbed the handle, and pulled against the locked door. Stunned, I stood there confused. The whole morning had been totally disorienting, but why was the door locked?
Then it hit me. I sank to the door-step, sat down and began to laugh. If any one had driven by just then, I’m sure they would have called the rubber truck – I was totally in stitches. I had forgotten to reset my clock for the change from daylight savings time, but God had not forgotten the time change.
Since that day, I have remembered that as the day God showed me just how faithful He is. I no longer need to have Him awaken me, but many mornings as I awake and look at the clock, I smile and wonder at the faithfulness of a God who remembers to reset the clock when I don’t.