A Morning Person

There is little doubt that I am a morning person. I generally wake up early, sometimes at 4AM, but certainly not later than 5:30AM most days. I don’t need an alarm clock. My internal clock rings, and it is generally a waste of time to lie there and “try to go back to sleep.” A snooze alarm is unnecessary in my case.

Universal Foods Corporation

What is new every morning for the morning person?

When I sit down at my desk every morning to begin my day with some reading, one of the first things I see is a clock I received in 1996 to acknowledge 20 years of work at Universal Foods Corporation. Most of those years involved work that had to be done early in the morning. The reason is simple: I was the manager of operations for the “Information Services Department.” Back in the dark ages of computing, it was important for the reports we had printed during the evening processing (on continuous green-bar paper) to be delivered to accounting, accounts receivable, sales, order entry, and to various executives and managers. The business depended on information, printed invoices, payroll checks, and sales reports. If employees started to arrive at 8AM, they needed information to do their work.

Of course, I wasn’t the one preparing or delivering the reports. My team did that work. But sometimes I helped if the need was great. So, being a morning person was helpful simply because so many depended on our department to give them what they needed for their morning and their afternoon.

Universal Foods Corporation – 1996

I was an employee of Universal Foods Corporation until 1999. In that year, Cindie and I moved to Madison, Wisconsin to begin a new adventure. Even then, as a vice president of information technology, I was a morning person. Thankfully, I no longer have to get up early to lead a technology team. Nevertheless, I still enjoy the quiet mornings watching the sun rise while I drink my morning coffee.

How to Identify a Follower of Jesus

A follower of Jesus has a renewed comfort for every morning. I remember a song we used to sing that comes from this passage in Lamentations: The Steadfast Love of the Lord by Edith McNeill (1920-2014). Be amazed by and thankful for these words: steadfast, never ceases, never come to an end, new, every, morning, great, and faithfulness.

 “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23

The Steadfast Love of the Lord Video

The Steadfast Love of the Lord

Five Minute Friday

This post is part of the weekly Five Minute Friday link-up.

All scripture passages are from the English Standard Version except as otherwise noted.