I suppose this makes me a poser, I might as well go ahead and confess that this would not be a first time offense of said posing, as I had Grateful Dead bears on the back of my car all throughout high school when Garth Brooks and Reba McEntire were in fact my jam. I also wore Vans, but didn't own a skateboard and played the clarinet in the marching band.
Have you ever stayed in a hotel that had turn down service? I hadn't either, until this trip. Unless you count a cruise ship where they make the little animals out of your hand towels, but I don't think it counts as "turn down service" when your room is the size of a closet. You don't know what "turn down service" is? Well, Lovey, (said in my best Thurston Howell III voice) it's a term used in the hospitality industry to indicate a service provided by swanky hotels where they come into your room just before bedtime and turn down your bed linens (because evidently rich people can't exert this type of strenuous effort right before bed) they may also place a mint or chocolate on your pillow.
In my case, it also meant that they drew all the curtains in the room because I had the unfortunate room positioning of being over the ocean, facing the water where the sun would rise in the morning. It's at this time I should probably also mention that I was gifted the trip and the room and did not use any support funds for said luxury, but nonetheless was about His business on this voyage. Don't be a hater the truth is, being about His business I may spend a few nights under mosquito nets or with questionable bed fellows, but when the Lord decides to bless me He goes BIG. You cannot out give God, I promise.
Oh, and the only reason I know to use the term "turn down service" is from watching the Gilmore Girls, as it was a service provided at the Dragonfly Inn. (Man! I really AM a poser!)
Before 6am my room filled with light, I mean, the wake you up from a dead sleep, like some inconsiderate person flipped the switch when you don't have to get up for hours kind of light. Oh, it's at this point in the story that you need to know I am NOT a morning person! I know studies show that all successful people get up early and that the morning hours are typically the most productive and that the Proverbs 31 woman gets up while it is still dark and prepares food, and that the Godliest people you know get up with the sunrise and spend the first hours of their day with Jesus. I'm gonna go ahead and let you know that not even Jesus wants to talk to me early in the morning! Note all of that as I tell you what happened next.
Even though the hotel staff had closed every shutter, blind, and pulled the blackout curtains as part of my "turn down service," sunlight filled my room. As I woke up and tried to process what was going on and who had turned the lights on at 5:55am in the morning, the Lord immediately spoke to me, (remember, this is NOT normal, I mean He speaks to me, it's just usually after noon when He does so.) He said, "They will do many things to keep the light out, but it will get in." Currently it is against the law to worship Jesus in the nation I had just woken up in and they make full time jobs of making sure He's kept out of their country, but He let me know at 5:55am that this would not be the case forever, that the prayers we were praying would prevail and The Light will overcome the darkness in this beautiful nation. Since I was up I took this little video for your enjoyment, sorry about the view.