The 1:35 Club

I’m starting a club. Perhaps you might be interested in joining.

I’m not a morning person. I have been wired for as long as I can remember to stay up late and do my best work while everyone else is asleep. There is nothing wrong with that; I enjoy writing, reading, or watching a movie into the late night hours when all is calm and still. And yet, I remain convinced of something – God has given us a great blessing with the breaking of the dawn and I believe it is to be used to deepen our love for Christ.

That’s a problem for me.

I wish I wasn’t convinced of this. I wish I could trick myself into thinking that I can get just as close to Jesus at 1:30 am as I can at 6:30 am. Perhaps for some people that is possible. Nevertheless, I believe mornings are a special gift to Christians. I am not using that gift the way I should.

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus does something extraordinarily important before he goes to preach to the crowds. He takes advantage of the morning. Mark 1:35 says, “And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.” Jesus thought it was important to take advantage of the early morning hours before he began ministering to people. That is all the instruction I need on this.

So I’m starting a club. Perhaps you might be interested in joining. I’m calling it the 1:35 club based on Mark 1:35 and its mission is simple:

Get Up Early. Get To Jesus.

Getting up early means different things to different people. We will all be in different stages of life that will require us to determine what time we should rise in order to give our mornings to God. We will want to rise earlier than normal while still getting enough sleep to be healthy; for me that is 6 1/2 hours. Maintaining this kind of a routine will never come easy (for most of us anyway). In fact, for me personally, it’s impossible. I won’t be able to do it without two things: The power of the Holy Spirit and accountability.

So I’m starting a club. Perhaps you might be interested in joining me.

Here are the ridiculously simple principles of my club:

We rise at our individually determined early morning hour.
We text our 1:35 partner(s) to offer a morning blessing (and make sure they are up).
We read Scripture. Either your daily reading plan or a book of the Bible you are studying or a Psalm or whatever. It just needs to be Scripture (not C.S. Lewis or John Piper or Dietrich Bonhoeffer). Each person might be reading something different. We would not all be following the same reading plan.
We update our prayer journals and we pray (Don’t have a prayer journal? Now’s the time!).
We spend some quite time with Christ.
We move into our day’s work.

We would match 1:35 partners together based on similar schedules since we might all be slightly different. For example, my schedule would be Monday-Thursday. Friday is my day off, so I might convince my good wife to let me sleep just a bit later that day. Sundays I am typically up by 5:00 or 6:00 am. So, I need this accountability for Monday-Thursday. Whatever your schedule is, we will work some folks together who match up and create some partners. I am hoping to have people join me from all over the country, not just central Kentucky. I hope maybe you will.

A few more things:

I want to begin the club on Monday, June 2.
We would make a commitment through August 31, 2014. At that time we would decide whether to continue or push pause.
After I receive people’s messages and schedules, I will pair 1:35 partners together for the purposes of texting and praying for one another. Don’t worry, I won’t pair you with someone you don’t know unless you are comfortable with that idea. It could be a beautiful way to make a new, meaningful friendships.
This is open to all ages, both male and female, liberal, moderate, or conservative.
If you would like to join me, please leave a comment here or send me an email by clicking here. I will be back in touch very soon.
If I get one person to do this with me, I will feel blessed for the accountability. If I get 12, that would be incredible. But I need at least one. So pray about joining me.