WAKING UP

Jacob was a man on the run.  He was running from his brother, who had vowed to kill him.  He was anxious, frustrated and afraid.  He had no thoughts of God in his mind that night as he pulled up a rock for a pillow and went to sleep.  Little did he know that God had designs on his life, and that He was about to invade his dreams.  In his dream he saw a ladder that reached from the earth to heaven. He saw the angels ascending and descending, and he saw God standing in the heavens above the ladder.  He thought he had stumbled upon the very house of God and so he said, ‘Surely, the LORD is in this place and I did not know it.’

What Jacob failed to realize, is that God had already been working in and around his life prior to this experience.  The problem was, he just didn’t have eyes to see. I read somewhere that The beginning of knowing about God is learning how to pay attention, learning to be fully present where you are, and waking up.  We realize, like Jacob, that we have been asleep.  We do not see what is happening all around us.  For most of us, most of the time, the lights are on but nobody’s home. 

The Psalmist said, ‘Where can I go God, that you aren’t there?  If I go to heaven, your there.  If I make my bed in hell.  You’re there.  If I sail on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me. And if this is true, that God is in all places at all times and He’s working in and around our lives always, then we should be able to see evidences of his work in every circumstance of our lives.  Jesus walked in this reality.  And so Jesus is walking down the road and he doesn’t just see a farmer scattering seed, but he sees a kingdom parable and the seed becomes a type of the word of God.  He sees a woman searching for a coin and He turns to His disciples and says, that’s like the Kingdom of God.  And He sees the lilies of the field and the birds in the air and in everything, He is able to discern the movement and handiwork and the voice of God.

And when we get this, what happens is the divide between the secular and the sacred gets smashed.  But when our lives are so fractured and fragmented because we’re not living in the present, then we miss what God is doing all around us.  The trick is to pay attention to what is going on around you long enough to behold the miracle without falling asleep.  There is another world, right here within this one, whenever we pay attention. As author David Geotz writes, 'Even in suburbia all moments are infused with the Sacred.  You don’t have to hole up in a monastery to experience the fullness of God.  Your cul-de-sac and subdivision are as good a place as any.'  And like Jacob, you’ll fid yourself saying, ‘Surely the Lord was in this place and I didn’t know it.’  

--Daniel