As I looked around the room I was a bit overwhelmed. There were CPA’s, teachers, ministry leaders, students, those that were jobless, abused, and homeless. How in the world was I going to teach a lesson that I felt God had put on my heart and know it would speak to everyone in the room?
Opening up I asked, “Do you feel like there is a leader within you trying to get out but that leader feels trapped by the circumstances of life?” I looked around the room and most everyone was sadly nodding their head up and down.
I know that feeling. It’s a feeling of despair, captivity, and frustration. As I’ve been studying to strengthen the leader in me and stretch my capacity, God has been bringing scriptures, devotionals, people, and sayings to me that all say one thing WAKE UP!
How could I or anyone in my class be living life asleep? We might all come from different backgrounds and be in quite different circumstances, but basically we all get up, run all morning, are frustrated by afternoon, and eventually collapse in bed. What I’ve noticed is that no matter who you are or what you do you are BUSY! So why the continuous flow of these words WAKE UP?
I remember when I was young and I’d talk my dad into watching a show with me on TV. Sure enough when the good part came I’d say something to him and he wouldn’t answer. I’d look closely and he’d be asleep. How could he be sleeping through the good part? I’d nudge him and say, “Daddy, wake up!” His answer, “I’m not asleep. I’m just resting my eyes.”
Maybe we are so numb to our busyness, circumstances, and routines that we feel like we are wide-awake. But in reality we are “just resting our eyes.” We are caught up doing the same things over and over. We run through each day without even giving attention to our actions and reactions because many of those actions don’t require us to be fully awake to participate in — computer time, TV, holding grudges, arguing, gossiping, etc. Basically, we are asleep with our eyes wide open, but our heart, mind, and soul are fully shut down and unaware.
If we are “resting our eyes” then it is no wonder why the nodding of the heads when I asked, “Do you feel like there is a leader within you trying to get out but that leader feels trapped by the circumstances of life?” If we aren’t AWAKE – wide awake – then we are sleep walking through our life. It’s hard to develop, train, and raise up the leader within us while we are apathetic and at rest.
Hear the alarm . . . it’s time to WAKE UP and live life fully awake, aware and alive!
I don’t want to be asleep. I don’t want to rest my eyes. I want to be fully AWAKE!
I so want to be fully awake. To shove all the little foxes away from my weary eyes and see the light! Awake and ready to live! Thank you for the encouraging post!
Thank you for sharing your wisdom with me last night! I was not sure what to expect when first walking into Bible study, honestly I was already thinking "this is going to be the same old stuff from my child hood", but I was pleasantly surprised and to be honest I know that I was right where God wanted me to be at last night. You hit so many nerves it's unreal. I am looking forward to the next few weeks of Bible study!
Now I am convinced that "I'm not a asleep, I'm just resting my eyes" is a Daddy-sort of answer. My Daddy said that a lot and was usually snoring.