As long as I can remember, and at my age that does not go back very far, I have always been an early riser. I do not like to stay in bed any longer than I have to. So much I want to do and so little time I need an early start every day. 

I have always used Benjamin Franklin’s motto for myself, “Early to bed and early to rise makes one healthy, wealthy and wise.” Unfortunately, my early to bed and early to rise maybe has made me healthy, but certainly not wealthy or wise.

This past week an event happened that challenged my “early to rise” regimen.

As usual, I rose early and headed for the kitchen for my cup of coffee. There is no way I can start a day without first indulging in my early morning cup of Joe. Nothing starts the day off better than a hot cup of coffee.

I am not sure who invented coffee, but I sure would like to buy them a cup of coffee and shake their hand. People, who do not really know any better, complain that coffee is bad for your health. Believe me when I say the absence of my coffee is bad for everybody’s health around me.

I go to bed early dreaming of that first cup of coffee when I rise.

Stumbling to the kitchen, I stubbed my toe twice walking down the hallway and then tried to turn on the kitchen lights. I am very careful to be quiet so as to not awaken the other resident in the house. She is the sort of person that needs her rest. I am the kind of person that wants her to have all the rest she can get. Therefore, I tried to quietly go to the kitchen and turn on the coffee pot.

When I flipped the light switch, nothing happened. I mumbled to myself that the light bulb probably burnt out. Have you ever noticed that that happens when you need the light the most? How many times does a light bulb go out during the day?

I tried several light switches in the kitchen and the dining room and none worked. “Well,” I thought to myself, “I will start the coffee.” I fumbled my way to where the coffee pot was and turned the switch on. Nothing happened.

I then went to turn on the TV to catch some early news and nothing happened.

There was no electricity at all in the house. My challenge was to make sure the electricity works before my wife got up. I could not let her know that we had no electricity.

Nothing I did restored any kind of electricity in our house.

Then it happened.

My wife came stumbling down the hallway and the first thing out of her mouth was, “Turn the lights on.”

I explained to her that there was no electricity and nothing was working in the house.

The next thing out of her mouth was, “Did you pay the electric bill?”

That did occur to me and there was a good probability that I had not paid the electric bill.

Fortunately, I had my cell phone and was able to call the electric company only to find out that the electricity in our neighborhood was out and the restoration in our neighborhood was estimated to be at around 10 o’clock.

How in the world can I survive without my cup of coffee until 10 o’clock in the morning? The whole world is in danger!

I never realized how important electricity was. I just took it for granted, paid the bill every month and just enjoyed the appliances and the lights and most important of all, the coffee pot.

As much as I love my coffee pot, it does not work without the electricity. I had a few words with the coffee pot, but it did not do any good. It wanted electricity and would not work until it had electricity. How legalistic!

Standing around in the darkness of the early morning my wife and I stared at each other, at least I think we were staring at each other, and wondering what in the world we could do. I was so afraid she would come up with a solution. She always does, you know. No matter what I break, she can fix. Now we had this problem before us.

Then she said those terrible anticipated words, “Why don’t we go out for breakfast this morning?”

Being married as long as I have been, I realized this was not a question requiring an answer, but rather it was something she wanted us to do. And so, off to the restaurant we went for our early morning coffee.

What I want to know is, will the electric company reimburse me for my early morning breakfast? After all, it is their fault that we had to go out. If I ever miss paying my bill, they always charge me late fees. Turnabout, I believe, is fair play.

I appreciate what David said, “For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly” (Psalms 84:11).

Many times, we never miss something until it is no longer available. I do not want that to happen to me concerning God’s grace and mercy in my life.