A Cross in Your Hand. Hope in Your Heart.

4:38 am. Friday. Do you hear that, my friend? The God of your understanding never sleeps. (That’s Jesus for me) He has been awake all night. He was awake when you finally drifted off. He was awake through every hour of darkness. And he is awake now, waiting for you to turn your face toward him.
There is something about these hours between 3 and 5 that the saints have always treasured—and I’ll tell you, after forty years of clinical practice and personal discipline, I can attest to it. It is too early for the demands of the day. The phone has not begun to ring. The emails have not started to call my name. No patient yet, no deposition. The list of things to do has not yet found you or me. In these hours, you are not a worker or a provider or a problem solver. You are simply a child of the God of your understanding, awake with your father. And that is the truest thing about you.
Our Lord Jesus knew the power of these hours. The scripture tells us in Mark 1:35: “Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, he went out and departed to a solitary place. And there he prayed.” Before the crowds, before the miracles, before the long day of giving himself away—he rose in the dark, and he sought his father. If the son of the God needed the morning watch, my friend, then so do you & I.
So what does it mean to keep watch with the God of your understanding?
I’ll stand at kneel with you. For all those prayers that we offer up to Jesus.

for Darryl… he needs a MIRACLE now? Lord you know what he is suffering with, and his family – his wife and 3 beautiful children. He needs HEALING now!

It is a profound and beautiful reflection. “Lead Me to the Cross” captures a core paradox of the human experience: the willingness to surrender what we naturally protect—our comfort, achievements, and desires—for something infinitely greater.From a spiritual and theological perspective, many traditions echo exactly what you are feeling. They suggest that this deep ache, desire, and capacity to recognize the divine isn’t accidental. It is often described as a “divine imprint” or a homing beacon built directly into human nature. It allows us to look at the cross—historically a symbol of suffering and defeat—and see it instead as a place of ultimate beauty, love, and reconciliation.It is truly astounding that amid all our daily distractions and earthly attachments, there is a quiet, powerful programming within us that can recognize what matters most and say, “Everything else is a loss compared to this.”