John 9:4 — I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.

I haven’t been at my best today. I’m really not sure why but I’ve been lethargic and sleepy and not enthusiastic about anything. Would you like my excuse? Here it is. I haven’t got one. Maybe it was a reaction to the joy of Christmas. Maybe it’s the weather! Whatever the cause might be, I know two things.
First, just about everybody I know has days like this.
Second, the only thing to do about it is to do something! I came across a line from a letter that the Anglican preacher George Whitefield wrote from Leeds in England in 1767: “Lord, help me to begin to begin”. When he wrote it, the great preacher was nearer his end than his beginning but it seems to me that his words are a prayer that are the only answer to the condition of spiritual dullness.
I am fortunate to have two great helps when I need to begin to begin.
The first of my great helps is, of course, my wonderful wife Myra. Today, for example, she got me off my seat and onto my feet. Just a short walk around the neighborhood, but enough to blow some cobwebs away … It was just what I needed.
The second of my helps is you … those of you who read these pieces and give me an excuse to work out some of my faith issues in writing — and give me no excuse not to begin to begin!
Jesus told his disciples “the night cometh” which should make me eager to be about His work. He knew, as I do not, how close His death was. For all of us, though, each day is one day closer to night — that night of which Matthew Henry said:

When the night comes we cannot work, because the light afforded us to work by is extinguished; the grave is a land of darkness, and our work cannot be done in the dark. And, besides, our time allotted us for our work will then have expired; when our Master tied us to duty he tied us to time too; when night comes, call the labourers; we must then show our work, and receive according to the things done.

The apostle Paul said something about the night too — but His thought was of the long night before the return of Christ:

And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. (Romans 13:11-12)

Just as we do not know the limits to our own life, nor do we know when the end of the church age will put a stop to all our opportunities to work — but that, too, should drive me onwards.
The night cometh … when no man can work … Lord help me to begin to begin!