Working in the Dark

Somewhere it gets instilled in us that a normal work day starts at nine in the morning and is over at five in the afternoon. I don't think I know anyone who works those exact hours, and certainly not Monday through Friday, the classic forty-hour work week.

Still, I think most of us work during daylight hours. Starting work before daylight seems strange. Working after sundown is an uphill battle. So what do we do during the short days of winter?

I've found something else that compounds the problem: I need to exercise during daylight. A long walk around town, pitching horseshoes, or playing basketball are obviously not night activities.

My whole rhythm of life changes in winter. My wife and I get up earlier each day. I start my exercise in the middle of the afternoon. Most difficult of all, I've begun to schedule more of my desk work after supper.

Working at night has been an uphill battle. It just doesn't feel right. Yet, with so many hours of darkness, my previous night leisure activities no longer fill up the time. So I might as well work. I've learned to do creative work earlier in the day, and save the routine work for those nighttime hours.

If I had thought about it, I would have realized that I already know how to do these kinds of changes. I constantly make adjustments for the 'seasons' of life. Relationships change or end, God calls us to a new task, opportunities to reach out to people arise, our energy reduces with age, our efficiency increases with age. New seasons come all the time.

Don't waste time fretting about being pushed into a new routine. Just make the change. God is always with you, and might even have caused the change in season.