Waking from a Dangerous Slumber

I love to sleep. Most people do! Yet for years of my life I struggled with the pursuit of good sleep. When I was in high school and college there was the constant pull of exams, activities, and noise that kept me awake. After I had babies the pursuit of sleep intensified as I functioned in a zombie-like state after soothing their nightly needs until they seemed to reach the age of three! Don't even get me started on the teenage years filled with sleepless nights waiting for them to come in safely. I finally thought I might be in for some good rest when they went to college, but that's when hormones seemed to move into my bedroom and we all would tuck ourselves in to bed at night hoping for a good snooze- but anticipating some nightly drama. My theory is that we want sleep, we need sleep- but sometimes it will escape us no matter what we do to try and enjoy it.
This week as I prepare to teach at church on Sunday I am studying a scripture in Ephesians that reminded me of my plight with sleep. Paul says three little lines that were probably a part of a hymn that the church in Ephesus sang together. It goes like this...
"Awake sleeper,
And arise from the dead,
And Christ will shine on you."

I realized when I first read this that Paul was saying something powerful. It's about our spiritual slumber- and how we live.

I remember feeling a bit like a sleep-walker in my relationship with food. I would numbly grab for food (or restriction of it when I was on an anorexic swing) and like a person in a deep sleep, compulsive thoughts of food would lull me like a bad lullaby.

Paul's words are an invitation...no...more like a command. He's saying "Get up! Wake up! Don't live like you're dead anymore!"

Why?

So that Christ will shine on you... His shining is like the rise of the sun after a perfect night's sleep. His shining fills, protects, and enlightens us. His shining melts off the deception and crust of our sleepy eyes.

Let's wake up out of our spiritual sleep- whatever that may look like. Let's live in the expectant hope of a Savior that is the ultimate alarm clock.
Blessings...
Gari