Early to Bed, Early to Rise

March 10, 13 & 14, 2010

We made it to western Pennsylvania in plenty of time for the midweek service at Living Waters Church of God in Washington Wednesday night. Pastor Mike Singo was so precious in his desire to accommodate us with room to change clothes, drinking water, etc., and I wanted to assure him we were there to serve him and not be served. After a good service, he approached me about the Amish. The reason the Amish come up a lot is because Bobby usually mentions in our concerts that my parents were raised Amish mainly because it's a topic of interest for most people. People usually find the Amish fascinating. I understand why, yet there's a huge element of familiarity on my part; I know a lot of Amish people and have grown up around them. I know that what seems to be quaint and pure is actually common and sometimes confused in their way of living. What seems to be holy because of appearance and lifestyle is actually a person born into sin just like me that wears different clothing and lives without modern conveniences...with the exception of cell phones. All Amish have cell phones now.

Anyway, Pastor Mike told me that his great (x 7) grandfather was an Amish man named Jacob Hochstetler from eastern Pennsylvania, whose family was attacked by Indians in 1757. His wife was brutally tortured and killed and Jacob and his sons were taken captive. The Hochstetler's owned guns but Jacob wouldn't allow his sons to shoot at the Indians because he didn't believe in taking a life. His story is testimony to loving your enemies and turning the other cheek. Now I had never heard of this story until I read it to Grace in her 5^th grade Mennonite-published History book, and it came to life just a little more upon meeting one of Jacob's grandsons. Pastor Mike added that NFL player Jeff Hostetler was also a descendant of the Hochstetler legacy.

We sat with Pastor Mike and his wife, Tammy for an hour after church just talking – not something we usually do – but we were able to learn a little more of the history of the church and from where God has brought them. Pastor Mike shared with us that the 7 pastors that preceded him were all adulterous and one of them was homosexual. Naturally, financial problems tagged along and this church, that had been built around 1970, still owed a little less than ten thousand on their mortgage. However, they had built a very nice two-story parsonage adjacent to the church. When Pastor Mike agreed to serve the congregation of Living Waters, he was not told any of the history of the pastors that preceded him. Instead, after 3 years his overseer asked him why he hadn't turned the books around and fixed everything. Fortunately, his church board was informed of this (not by Pastor Mike) and very quickly nipped it in the bud and went over the overseer's head. Apparently, the overseer was keeping those in authority over him in the dark as much as possible. “Be sure, your sins will find you out.”

We arrived home the following evening in time to unload the van and trailer, unhook the trailer from the van and go to bed. I set the alarm for 4:40 a.m. as we were going to 6:00 prayer meeting at our church. It's not easy getting the kids up and ready at that hour but after we're there and we've sung mightily for 20 minutes, followed Pastor Davis' lead in praying for our country, state, city, church and families and ended our hour of power with calling souls out of darkness and into light from the north, south, east and west, I'm sure glad we did it. Sacrificing the sleep and forsaking the warmth of our beds is worth it to see full altars and a growing church.

Our next date was at New Vision Worship Center in Baldwin, Georgia the following Saturday night, March 13. It was a rather long evening because many of the church folks took turns singing too. It was all good but when we finally got back to the hotel room I hurried as quickly as I could to get everyone in bed so that I could get myself tucked in. We drove into the Eastern Time Zone that day and on top of that we were springing forward another hour. The clock beside the bed said it was 11:00 when I got into bed and I had to get up at 6:00. Here's the interesting thing: I've read enough to understand now that the earlier you go to bed, the better and healthier your rest will be. In other words, sleeping from 9:00 until 4:00 is much healthier than sleeping from 11:00 until 6:00, even though it's the same amount of hours, the quality of rest is better. Although the bedside clock read 11:00, my body clock still thought it was 9:00 p.m. I rose at 6:00 (new time) but my body clock thought it was 4:00 a.m. At the end of the day, after singing at Emmanuel Independent Baptist Church in Greenwood, South Carolina, followed by a long drive back to Dalton, Georgia to sing at McFarland Hill Baptist Church, another 2 hour drive home and arriving home around 11:00, I realized I wasn't tired and I felt great! If I had waited to go to bed like I normally do, I would have been extremely drowsy on the 4 hour drive that afternoon between Greenwood and Dalton. Because I went to bed so much earlier, I was wide awake, cutting coupons and even reading to the kids! This was a life-changing experience for me. I'm totally convinced now that the more sleep you get before midnight, the better off you are. It's not something I can do faithfully with the lifestyle we have. For example I tried to sleep in the van Saturday night while going over the mountains of West Virginia, feeling lots of bumps and Faith flip-flopping beside me. And as I write this post it's almost 11:00 and we're not home yet. However, tomorrow night I'll be home and bedtime will come early.