Sometimes my mind sees what it wants to see. Often I will have to schedule work calls early in the morning (6:00 am or sometimes earlier), thus getting me up even earlier to prep for these calls. So after setting my alarm and mentally telling myself I need to get up early, my body every so often takes that mental command and runs with it. And what happens is that I will wake up at 1:00 in the morning feeling completely alert, and then jump out of bed ready to start my day.

The odd part to me is not that I wake up far earlier than my alarm. The odd part is that before I jump out of bed, I stare at my alarm clock for a long time, my brain trying to decipher the numbers it sees. And every time, my mind sees my clock as being near my actual wake-up time. It is not until 30 or so minutes later that I find out it's a completely different time than what I thought I had seen.

This is how our brain works all the time when it comes to matters of faith. Our brains see what we want them to see. The believer who wants to commit that sin finds some rationalization that it's okay. The believer who votes for that pro-choice candidate sees the other qualities and ignores the murder. The believer who wants children despite the Lord's clear denial chases every medical option available at great cost. The believer who stuffs faith into an hour and a half on Sunday morning sees that regular attendance as faithful rather than the bare minimum.

The Apostle Paul goes blind on the Damascus Road, and it's only later when the scales fall away from his eyes and he sees truth. This process needs to occur on a more regular basis in our walks of faith, methinks.