Wake Up Like Jesus
Mornings used to be the worst part of my day. My alarm clock would go off, and I would reach over and smack the snooze button, trying to get many minutes of sleep as possible. Because I was up late the night before.
Before long, my kids would come barging into the room. They’d wake me and my wife up saying, “Dad. Mom, we need breakfast. Feed us!”
So they’d drag us out of bed. We’d get up and make them breakfast. Before I knew it, I’d look at my clock start to panic because we are late for school and we’ve got to get to work too.
So we’d panic and start yelling at the kids, “Hey, go get ready! Get dressed. We’ve gotta hurry. Hurry, we’re gonna be late!”
So I’d get the kids into the car. My wife already have to run off to work. And we’d make our way off to school.
I would fight through traffic and the get to the parent car line (also known as purgatory). Then, I’d rush off to work, haul my way to the freeway, and get stuck in traffic. Slowly making my horrible commute to work.
And I would sit in traffic, clutching my steering wheel, so tense and stressed because I had a meeting on the other side of town.
It just started my entire day on a horrible note. I felt incredibly behind, stressed out, and like I could never keep up.
Have you ever been there?
Then, after a stressful day at work of projects and meetings, I would get back in the car, sit in rush hour traffic again, and make my way home late to see my kids. I’d get home in time to get them fed, drive them off to different activities, bring them home, put them in bed, and finally my wife and I would have a little bit of time to talk. We would debrief our day, maybe have a mini date, and then go to bed.
I would then lay in bed, get my phone out, and spend hours scrolling through social media, reading articles, and watching Netflix. I’d finally go to bed late, knowing that my alarm was going off in a few hours, and I would have to get up and do this stressful routine again.
The Inspiration for a New Morning Routine
One morning, I was reading my Bible. I read a passage of Scripture that I’ve read hundreds of times before. But it never really latched on to me like it did at that moment.
”Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” (Mark 1:35).
I noticed that Jesus did three things that I didn’t do?
- Jesus got up early. I got up late.
- Jesus left the house and went for a walk. I stayed inside as long as possible and drove somewhere.
- Jesus spent time alone with God. My kids never left me alone.
So, as I was reading this verse, thinking about Jesus’ morning routine, I thought to myself: Why have I never tried to imitate Christ in this way?
So I made a plan and decided to do my best to wake up like Jesus for the next month.
I got my phone out, set the automatic recurring alarm for every morning at 5:30 AM.
The next few mornings were really hard. I was exhausted. Why on God’s green earth was I up at 5:30 in the morning.
But I had at least an hour every morning to attack my day before the day attacked me. I got a jump on the day. And I was able to be much more productive.
Plus, sitting in silence in the morning before all the chaos hits, I was more centered and present in the day. I was more at peace with things that were coming and I didn’t feel so rushed, so anxious, and so tense.
My wife told me, “Brandon, this is awesome for you. Never stop.”
I hesitated, “Never?”
She’s said, “Never stop.”
And you know what the old proverb says: happy wife, happy life.
So for last year and a half now I’ve been waking up early.
My Morning Routine
Every morning I wake up at 5 AM. I started at 5:30 but it got so good that I wanted more time. So not now I’m waking up every morning at 5 AM, and I’m loving it.
I look forward to it.
I do what I call my morning REPS.
REPS is just an acronym for me to help me remember what I’m doing that early in the morning.
It just stands for Read, Exercise, Pray, and Shower.
Read
I read my Bible and I spend some time with God because Jesus went off and spent time alone with God.
And the way that we spend time with God is in his Word. That’s primarily the way that God speaks to us. So I listened to him, I open up the Word, and I read my Bible every single morning.
And that is one of the most fulfilling times in my morning. It really centers me.
When you have anxiety and you’re stressed out, getting the focus and attention off of you and your problems and focusing on God, who is so much bigger than any of your problems, it makes your stuff seem so small, petty, and non-existent that you chill out and realize that God’s got this in his hands.
He’s got everything under control.
So starting out my day with God has really helped.
Exercise
Next, I exercise. I go out and I go for a walk or a run.
Jesus got up and he walked out of the house. Now, I don’t know if he did that for exercise purposes. Jesus walked everywhere. That was his mode of transportation back then.
But I drive everywhere. In the suburbs of Phoenix, everything is so spread out that there’s not a whole lot of walking going on. People just drive everywhere.
I wasn’t getting enough exercise. So I would get up every morning and walk out of the house just like Jesus did. Soon I started running. And before you I knew it, over the last year, I went at least a mile and every single morning (aside from a few days on the weekend here or there).
As a result, I’ve gotten in better shape, lost some weight, and really I’m feeling much better. I have more energy because I’m getting up and moving.
Pray
Next, I pray. Again, this is spending time with God.
When I’m reading God’s Word, he is speaking to me, and when I pray, I’m speaking to God.
I’m giving my requests to him, asking God to help me through the day with things that are weighing me down or stressing me. And I’m also asking him to help people I know and love in what they are dealing with.
I’m asking God for help in those situations.
And again, like reading, prayer sets your day at ease. It helps you focus on how big God is, and how he’s in control of all things instead of how you’re trying to control everything.
It’s so much better than stressing yourself out trying to try to manipulate what you can’t manipulate, and control what you can’t control.
My prayer life has become richer because I’m starting my day with prayer.
Shower
The last thing I do is shower. This is because I just went for a run, and I’m sweaty and gross. So I need to clean up.
This is the one thing in my routine that I’m not sure if Jesus did every morning. We don’t know if he showered every day. It’s not it’s not in the Bible.
They didn’t have a lot of showers back then, so I don’t know if he washed up or what he did. But me, I’m all sweaty. And nobody wants to be around me when I’m all sweaty and gross.
So I shower as a courtesy to other people.
The Wake Up Like Jesus Challenge
Before trying to follow Jesus’ morning routine, I was getting nothing done and staying up too late. But now I am more productive by six in the morning than most people.
I’m not saying that to brag. It’s just that most people are still in bed, and I’ve already spent some time with God. I’ve read my Bible. I’ve gone for a run. Sometimes, I even have a little extra time before the kids get up to answer emails or to do a little work.
So I’m less stressed and feel much more on top of things.
It’s awesome.
If you want to see more of my productivity system and all the things that I do, check out the Productive Christian Journal. It’s a little tool I’ve created that helps me through my day going through my morning REPS, my to-do list, and some of my evening routines.
But it all started with better mornings.
Jesus inspired me to start waking up at 5 AM, and my life is simply better because of it.
So if you’re reading this and thinking that your mornings are too stressful, hectic, and you hate them, here’s my challenge to you: consider waking up more like Jesus.
Try it out.
What if for the next week, just one week, you set your alarm early, get up, and spend your mornings the way Jesus spent them?
What if you got up out of the house for a little bit to spend some time alone in prayer and in God’s Word?
Take the one-week wake up like Jesus challenge, and tell me if it doesn’t change your life.
Tell me if it doesn’t make you more centered, more grounded, more at peace with the day, and at peace with what God’s doing in your life.
