While we know that some days we would love to sleep in, we are awakened by whatever or whomever and forced out of a warm bed and some good dreams. Even though we have come to form the opinion that these events are wake up calls, there is more to this than meets the eye. Let me first state that I do not really like getting up early!
First, we have physical wake up calls. Can anyone agree with me that getting up at Oh dark thirty should be illegal!? If you are lucky, you get to sleep in and arise at your leisure. The 99% of us don't have such luck. Don't get me wrong; it's a gift to wake up each morning on the right side of the grass! There are many who have been denied a long and full life because misfortune has beset their lives. Just for this moment try and sit back, relax, and imagine life without someone you love. No phone calls, summer visits, exchanged presents...no more anything with them. We may be grateful that they visited our world and helped us grow as God wants. However, we don't want these people gone from our lives. When someone we love goes to be with Jesus we miss them physically and there is nothing that can fill that void left in our life.
Second, we have psychological wake up calls. We are suddenly aware that our outlook on life has changed without asking us permission first. We may be feeling betrayed, confused, angry, or even depressed. We want to be a better person but at what cost? There are costs you know. We forgive someone who has wronged us. The innocence of a relationship is gone and we are forever changed. Psychological wake up calls signify our movement through life's good and bad events. We may be awakened individually or corporately but we will be awakened. Things will change and for some of them we have no control. Life before Christ was defined by what we chose to engage in. Life after Christ is defined by what He chooses us to engage in. Where we once catered to our perceived needs (really wants) we now as Christian we are submitting to the will of God (at least trying too!) We claim that we are maturing when in fact the worldly focus is replaced with a heavenly focus and "it is no longer I who live; but Christ who lives within me." Embracing wake up calls are costly. Is it a cost you are willing to bear?
Third, we have spiritual wake up calls. Spiritual calls are probably the most important wake up calls that we talk about. The problem with human beings is that these wake up calls are for someone else and certainly not for me. When we have a spiritual awakening in the wake up call, we are changed. Perhaps not all at once, but we are changed. People we once interacted with now either change with you, try to get you back on their track of living life, or walk away. When people walk away from the relationship we once had; both worlds change. Things we had in common some how seem to disappear or become less important. We realize that the reason we have had these people in our lives was for selfish needs and wants. So, sometimes we walk away. When we are transformed from dead to alive in Christ, we cannot help but be changed. Spiritual wake up calls are seen by many as a sign of weakness. For the Christian, it's a sign of strength. After all, who is more powerful than God? Who is more knowing than God? Who loves you with a love greater than anything in the world? God does.
Which one is most important to you? Why do you choose what you choose? What are the ramifications of making this choice or that choice? It's not like anything you have ever experienced before. There are costs involved in each of the choices. Are you willing to consider the costs and make the change? Jesus asks us to forsake all others and to follow him and him alone. He promises that we will have a life like no other. He also tells us that the change to love him will be more important than any other event or thing in our life.
Prior to becoming a Christian my life was filled with everything you might imagine a 20 year old guy would be filled with. My encounter with Jesus was out of desperation and the last step before killing myself. To say the encounter was life changing is a gross understatement. My life was transformed in a moment. Gone was the loneliness as I had a new best friend. Gone were the desires for drugs, smoking, and swearing. Gone were those who called themselves friends only when they wanted or needed something. In place of these parts of my life changing there were the filtering out who was good for me and who was bad for me. My desires in accepting the wake up call from Jesus once entered I could never leave. There were times I walked a different path but Jesus was patiently waiting. My friends of old would have walked on without so much as a though about taking me with them. God changed my way of thinking. Keep in mind that despite the saving work of Christ, I was still human with desires that I wasn't delivered from. I'm still working on them.
Just for today, try to live a life garnered from a wake up call from God. You will be glad you did. No one loves you more than Jesus...no one.
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