Of Late Nights and Early Mornings...

I have been pondering lately this scripture...

John 7:17-----If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.

I have always considered myself a "commandment keeper" so naturally I have felt that I should be able to know HIS doctrine when I heard it.

Then a few weeks ago, this story came to my mind, and it made me laugh with utter delight, as I could now see clearly the things that were so hidden from me at the time :)

To work my way through college I became happily employed as an early morning custodian (an EMC) as I used to like to fancy calling it.  This required grueling early morning hours, great discipline of waking at the right time.  I prided myself on arising early, studying my scriptures (before work), and working hard for my money.

Now here is the humorous part, I DID NOT GO TO BED EARLY!  Not even close, but I insisted on believing that I was receiving the whole blessing of waking early, so even though my eyes burned with tiredness as I read my scriptures, and I fell asleep in class (I once woke up to a loud noise during a lecture class and realized everyone was staring at me because the noise was my head hitting the wall behind me), I insisted on believing that I was enjoying the full blessing of arising early...being invigorated.  

It is easy to see the false thinking now, but at the time I truly believed I was invigorated, because I believed in the law.

My take home from studying this experience is:  How can you know the full blessing, if you are not living the full law?

The full law is, retire to bed early and arise early that your mind and body might be invigorated.  I was forgetting half the LAW...  Oopsy :)

So I have been pondering how this experience could apply further to my life.  It requires me to look at all my life and determine if I am keeping many other half-commandments :)