“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
The line “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead” came to my mind a couple days ago, so I went looking for theverse in the Bible. I am not sure what it means for my life just yet, but I know I needed to hear it. I have felt like a strange version of myself for months now, and it feels like not caring. About much of anything. I don’t like this feeling but I don’t know how to make it go away. So for today I am choosing to name some things that have made me feel a little bit alive lately.
1-seeing the Great Blue Heron standing by the boathouse early in the morning
2-going for a run in the 50 degree brisk morning air just before daybreak
3-learning to stretch my IT bands and recovering from some of the pain and tightness I’ve had lately
4-reading in the bath at night
5-making and eating my sweet potato omelet for lunch each day
6-anticipating the first Apple Pecan waffle of the season at Tandem
7-reading The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane to the girls
8-staying after school to talk to my friends while the kids play with their friends
9-the warm sun on these first fall days when the air feels just the right amount of cool
10-a new Bible study time with friends because I need to learn and be encouraged and challenged in community right now
11-meeting new people at church
12-doing Alpha small group with TJ over Zoom
13-Bill Bryson books, a biography of C.S. Lewis, and unexpectedly John Steinbeck’s East of Eden (!!)
14-Waterloo sparkling water (grape and lemon-lime)
15-Methodical coffee in the morning and red wine at dinner
16-doing a devotion with just me and TJ and the boys some nights
17-date nights at Hampton Station
18-Justin Bieber’s song “Holy”
19-playing piano with Story
20-being a good friend
That sounds like a lot of living when I put it on a list like that, and I am grateful to have so many good things in my life still. Yet I feel like I am dragging my soul along through my life, and waiting to wake up to something different, something better inside myself.
“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.”