A Survival Kit for the Graveyard Shift

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you." (John 15:12-14 ESV)

This week will be the start of a new week and the start of a new monthly work schedule. It is my turn to be on the graveyard shift starting Thursday evening. I will be working Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 10pm to 8am in the morning. It a shift that I dread, but it is my turn!

I work for a telecommunication company that has 24 hour staffing. The company provides dial-up services and Internet phones on broadband Internet for residential customers. CLEC phone services, web hosting, web management, web authoring, and data delivery services on high capacity fiber optic lines for our commercial customers. From Midnight to 8am I will be alone in the building to monitor the phones in case granny calls in because she can’t send her email at 3am and to monitor our network to ensure that our commercial clients doesn’t have any outages during the night.

For the most part, the hours from Midnight to 8am are slow. We do have a few customers that will call in for support during the night, but not many. The real challenge for me is to stay awake! To help me stay awake I put together the Graveyard Shift Survival Kit. The kit includes food in case I get hungry during the night. Bringing food is a good idea if you are a diabetic and will be locked in a building for 10 hours. The other things in the Graveyard Shift Survival Kit are pet projects to work on like this blog. I am hoping that I will be able to write down some of my thoughts as it relates to Reformed Theology and to make improvements to the page while I am working.

I also ordered Mike Horton’s new book on Covenant Theology (God of Promise) to read during the night, but reading during the night can sometimes cause me to get sleepier. The most important item in the Graveyard Shift Survival Kit would be my ESV Reformation Study Bible. I do try to get in some Bible reading done while I am on this shift. I often read it while listening to MP3 audio version of it on my work computer. If I get tired I will try to keep a wake by listen to the White Horse Inn and Renewing Your Mind on the Internet. If I get too tired I have Stay Awake pills from Wal-Mart, LOL.

To make my Graveyard Shift Survival Kit complete there are my Christian friends on Sovereign Grace Singles. Many of my friends on this site have keep me company while I am working this shift by writing email, responding to my blogs, and chatting with me in the chat room. Some of them even called me on my personal Internet phone that is on my desk here at work (or I called them because free for me to call). I am very grateful for all of them that have keep me company during this difficult shift. If anyone would like to chat with me on the phone can with the understanding I may have to cut it short if I get a phone call and/or if the skubalon hits the fan as it relates to the network.

I thank all of you my Brothers and Sisters in Christ!

Timotheus