3 AM

It's 3 am. Well, it was 3 am when I woke up. In my dazed stupor, I couldn't figure out where the music was coming from. Norah Jones?? I love this song... Wait, where is it coming from?? My phone? My Bible? My pillow? The window? My computer?!?!? My computer, on the floor with the lid shut, started playing music. Randomly. At 3 am. After being off since 9 pm the night before, Pandora decided it would use Norah Jones to allure me into consciousness (at least it was that and not something more intense like Skillet!). But it took me a few minutes to figure out where the music was coming from.

Considering the obscurity of my circumstances, I knew the Lord wanted me awake. So, I tried something my roommate does: I asked God why he woke me up and who I should pray for. Well, at that moment, a few skype messages popped up from a dear friend who is in Europe. I knew at that moment that God woke me up to talk to her. So I asked, "How can I pray for you?" and we ended up talking for an hour and a half. And I couldn't have imagined a better way to spend my early morning hours.

We talked about her life and what's going on, and I have experienced similar things, and not that long ago. So I was in a unique position to speak God's wisdom into her life. As we talked it became more clear that this was from the Lord. It was a divine appointment (I even went to bed pretty early, and it wouldn't surprise me if that was the Lord's doing as well so I would be awake to talk to her). And in light of that, it was hard for me not to praise God for waking up. Not only was it a blessing to her, but I feel so blessed and honored and humbled that God, out of everyone in the world she knows (and having lived all over the world in her young life, she knows a lot of people), would choose me to lift her up. And the best part is that it's not anything I said that made any difference at all. It's what God has done in my life and how He spoke to her through me.

So, waking up at 3 am, I could have complained and gone back to sleep. And God knew that. So He used unusual circumstances to wake me up to force me to question why I was awake. And it was only through opening my computer to turn off Pandora that those messages were able to pop up. And those messages lead to a conversation that changed the course of both our days (and maybe lives). Beautiful.

Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night? Does it make you cranky? Frustrated? Tired? Next time this happens, I challenge you to pray and ask God why. You may never know the difference it makes, but I know it will make a difference.