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Another reason for right living is that you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for the coming of our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So don't live in darkness. Get rid of your evil deeds. Shed them like dirty clothes. Clothe yourselves with the armor of right living, as those who live in the light. (Romans 13:11-12 NLT)

I don't know about you, but some of my "best ideas" come to me right before I go to sleep. Yet in that special land between wakefulness and sleep, I have traditionally decided that I would not get up and write down my thoughts. "I'll remember this in the morning!" I cheerily tell myself as I give myself permission to slip into deep slumber. Problem is, I can't ever remember those "stellar" insights to life, "incredible" sermon ideas, or "fantastic" Heartlight articles when I awaken in the morning. Something about the light of dawn causes me deep and permanent memory loss! My procrastination and my desire for deep sleep defeats the good intentions in my heart and the good ideas in my head.

To combat my forgetfulness, I have sometimes kept a pencil and notepad by my bedside. When I had one of those twilight sleep ideas of "world-changing magnitude," I would write down the gist of it before I dropped off to sleep. The next morning, I would look at those scribbled notes I had jotted down in my nether-sleep and could remember the "stellar" thoughts of the previous evening ... provided I could read my own writing.

Our good intentions lie on the scrap heap of forgetfulness.

In more recent days, I have kept a more modern notepad by my bedside — a handheld computer. When I get one of those "incredible" pre-sleep ideas, I tap out the ideas into the handheld and my "amazing" pre-sleep thoughts are there waiting for me in the morning. (Not only is the handheld more readable, the backlit screen helps me edit, put down more content, and provides a nightlight for me to see my way to the bathroom in the dark.) I don't lose those "brilliant" ideas simply because I've slept sometime between thought and remembrance. Now that I don't forget so many of my "great" ideas, I can honestly admit that many of them were not all that brilliant. However, this way I get to decide which ones I want to forget.

So what is the point of all this rambling? Well, there's an old saying that goes something like this: "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." In our busy and overly hectic lives, we make so many commitments to ourselves that we never keep. In fact, we make many internal commitments that we can't even remember. We get busy — or we have a night's sleep — and we forget about that deep conviction that led to a new commitment the night before. Our good intentions lie on the scrap heap of forgetfulness. Maybe we need a spiritual notepad to keep nearby and jot down these commitments. Maybe we need to cut back on the commitments we make and ramp up on keeping them.

The world needs more nightlights to illuminate its darkness. As long as our good intentions and our spiritual commitments remain forgotten and unfulfilled, our own little neighborhood of the world remains in darkness. So let's put a little more urgency in remembering and fulfilling our commitments. Let's insure that we follow through on our good intentions — whether we journal to keep track of them or put them on a to-do list to help us complete them or share them with a friend to hold us accountable. Most importantly, let's not let the darkness rob us of our passion to be God's light in a world of darkness. Satan would love for us to lose our passion in the forgetfulness of his darkness and our sleepiness.

For you are all children of the light and of the day; we don't belong to darkness and night. So be on your guard, not asleep like the others. Stay alert and be sober. (1 Thessalonians 5:5-6)

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Phil Ware is minister of the Word at Southern Hills Church of Christ in Abilene, Texas. For the past 10+ years, he has also been co-editor of HEARTLIGHT Magazine. For more details, click here.

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