Tag Archives: Ephesians 5:14

Live fully awake and truly alive

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“I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start over again.” F. Scott Fitzgerald

Chances are the engine on your airplane didn’t blow up on a recent flight. But apparently that happened on JetBlue Flight 1416 last week shortly after take off from Long beach, California. It must have been a scary event. According to passengers, the cabin filled up with smoke, many people cried and some prayed, breathing through those little oxygen masks that fall from the aircraft ceiling. Four people were injured with one going to the hospital, but a major disaster was averted.

 

Can you imagine what would go through your mind if you had been on board? One moment you are happily on your way to Texas, perhaps to conduct business, visit a friend, or to vacation, and the next you are wondering if you will make it home. One passenger said, “I am just happy to be alive. I don’t think I’ll be mean to anybody ever again.”

 

Catastrophes and near-death experiences have a way of bringing us to our senses. They serve as a wake-up call to pay attention to what is important in life. They bring to mind our shortcomings and give us motive to live better lives, or at least to make such vows.

 

But why wait for a catastrophe? Why not decide now to intentionally be nice to people, to greet strangers with a smile, to spend more time meditating on your life purpose and daring to live it out? Why not decide to not waste your life when things are going well? Maybe we sleep so deeply through our lives that we sometimes need a catastrophe to awake us from our slumber. Maybe the humdrum routine of our life lulls us to wearily nod our heads just as the steady drone of the jet engine lulls us to sleep.

 

But it doesn’t have to be so. You can live with your eyes wide open to each day that comes. You can establish a thankful morning routine that wakes you up to the importance of living this day well. You can be intentional about your thoughts and actions. You are not alone in this quest. God Himself goes with you and offers His Spirit to help and guide you.

 

Live fully awake today. Be truly alive. It matters.

 

“Wake up sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Ephesians 5:14

Are things going your way or God’s way?

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Your way… Or Yahweh?

 

Admit it. You really like it when things go your way, don’t you? Me too. After a long arduous climb, it’s nice to take a rest on the mountain top and survey the beauty of the land around you. Whether it is friends and family getting along, finances sufficient to pay for your needs and some of your wants, good health, a beautiful day on your day off, a cool breeze on a hot day…it’s just nice when everything works out, isn’t it?

 

But that’s not always the way it goes. I read a Facebook prayer request the other day that caught my attention. The person was saying they really needed prayers because “things really aren’t going my way lately.” In a rather insensitive moment, I thought to myself, “Welcome to the club. Life isn’t designed to always go our way.” I think the first chapter of Warren’s Purpose Driven Life book is called “It’s not about you!” And still, we often expect that things will go our way. In fact we spend much of our life attempting to achieve just that.

 

The cartoon above shows the sojourner, a man just like you and me, standing at the crossroads of “Your way” and “Yahweh” (God’s way; good word play.) That’s just where you and I are every single day, and many times throughout the day. Making choices of which way we will go, deciding to say this or that, to mark our thoughts with nobility or with pride. Oh for sure, we aren’t always aware of the choice. We are so good at acting as creatures of habit, we go through much of life in a doze and on ‘autopilot.’ Like the old nursery song we need to ask, “Are you sleeping, are you sleeping, brother John?” Feel free to insert your own name. I have when I have found myself sleeping through parts of life.

 

What are we to do at such times? Wake up. Let the light of God shine on you and rouse you from your sleepiness. “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Ephesians 5:14  Choose YAHWEH/God’s way through the day. Even if it’s difficult it will surpass your way.