Asleep

In 1993, after graduation from High School, I went underground.  It was not my choice. It was not fair. It was because of an illness that onset in my first semester of college.  When I came out of it, it was almost two years later.  I started a part time job.  Then someone told me about the internet.  I was shocked to find that the dial-up system which I used to spend hours on text-based MUDs (roll-playing adventures) in high school had become an international commerce phenomenon.   I was asleep when the world changed.

In Luke 9, Jesus takes his closest disciples up to the mountain to pray.  The account appears in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  But in Luke, it offers the detail: They were sleeping while he prayed. While they were snoozing, his countenance was changed to bright white like lightening and he was conversing with Moses and Elijah who talked with him about his future death in Jerusalem. (Luke 9:29-36)¹ His sleepy disciples awoke to a revelation that they almost missed. 

Do you have anything in your life that you felt you almost missed? If you missed something, would you know about it?  But we are not to sleep through life, distracted by our earthly desires, letting our focus change to this fad, or to this popular controversy, or our work, or even ourselves. Jesus tells us in Luke 21:36, to “stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”  We are to remain awake and sober, not distracted by the trappings of this world.  And how do we do this? God weighs in in verse 35, “Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen;^[i] listen to him!” God told Jesus’ disciples how to stay awake, by focusing on Jesus and not the things of this world: by listening to him who is in contact with the Father and can bring us revelation of his will.  We too can do this by reading the scriptures, by praying, by listening to his voice, by meditating on the words of Jesus. Only when we do this, are we open to the movement of the Holy Spirit and what God is doing in this world.  God who knows more than us, what the pivotal moments will be, that we need to stay awake and sober to see.

¹ Luke 9:29-36 in the Amplified bible.  “And as He was praying, the appearance of His countenance became altered (different), and His raiment became dazzling white [^[m]flashing with the brilliance of lightning]. And behold, two men were conversing with Him—Moses and Elijah, Who appeared in splendor and majesty and brightness and were speaking of His exit [from life], which He was about to bring to realization at Jerusalem. Now Peter and those with him were weighed down with sleep, but when they fully awoke, they saw His glory (splendor and majesty and brightness) and the two men who stood with Him. And it occurred as the men were parting from Him that Peter said to Jesus, Master, it is delightful and good that we are here; and let us construct three booths or huts—one for You and one for Moses and one for Elijah! not noticing or knowing what he was saying. But even as he was saying this, a cloud came and began to overshadow them, and they were seized with alarm and struck with fear as they entered into the cloud. Then there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is My Son, My Chosen One or ^[n]My Beloved; listen to and yield to and obey Him! And when the voice had died away, Jesus was found there alone. And they kept still, and told no one at that time any of these things that they had seen.”