I See... When the Spirit Goes to Bed

I routinely remember hearing often during my career as an LDS youth that “the spirit goes to bed at midnight.” Decades later as an adult leader of youth I knew this to be true. A majority of the mischief messed up youth get mixed up in, whether it be bonding too deeply with the opposite sex or just pure destructive vandalism, occurs after the clock strikes twelve. For some mysterious but almost empirical reason, under the cover of early darkness, the spirit stops protecting youth from the natural man, an enemy to God. Nothing good happens after midnight.

Or so I thought.

Last night, at approximately 1:44 am, long after the spirit should have gone to bed, I witnessed the Mangum miracle on ESPN. Only-three-months-off-his-mission-to-Chile-freshman quarterback Tanner Mangum, representing God's school BYU, with only 45 seconds left on the clock, on fourth and seven at the Boise State 39-yard line launched a laser strike winning touchdown pass to wide receiver Mitchell Juergens. Brother Mangum could not have accomplished this last feat one his own; heaven had to have helped him.

Perhaps the spirit had been caught staying up past its bedtime? Hmmmmm....