Double Negatives

Why is it that every time I wake up early in the morning to work out at the Y, it ends up being the most productive day of the week? This isn’t just a onetime occurrence; I’ve tested it a number of times. For me, summer denotes a vacuum for needed accomplishments: daily devotions, working out, reading, in a sense, productivity. Lying on the couch all day, watching TV does not fall under “productive”. Let it be the dreaded 7am alarm or the faucet I stick my head under to wake up or the sore-inducing workouts: it ends up being worth it. Waking up early to work out is a double negative that somehow becomes positive. Waking up at 7am is painful. Working out is exhausting. Pain and exhaustion…where’s the fun in that? Yet they simultaneously curtail laziness and actuate progress. Some things require more than a briefness of pain; some involve an initial wake-up followed by belated fatigue. Holding on to hope in the face of discomfort brings both a lucid understanding of evil as well as more achievement through our actions. But do we see only negative? Or do we see the positive that could come from standing against the discomfort?