Awake My Soul

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Sorry. I fell asleep and that's what happens when your head hits the keyboard.

Sleep and I go way back. From the moment I entered the world, sleep and I were tight. My relationship with sleep is only one of love. I love sleep and sleep loves me. If that last part were possible, it would be true. Though it has never been fully tested, I'm pretty sure I could sleep anywhere. You think I'm kidding, but I seriously mean anywhere: next to railroad tracks, the detonation of a nuclear bomb, the blue whale as it emits its mating call at 188 decibels, a speaker at a Justin Bieber concert, etc. You get the idea. And no, I don't have narcolepsy.

Back in the day, I remember my mom coming into my room to wake me up at some obscenely early hour like 11 a.m. telling me to "Rise and shine and give God the glory!" in what she intentionally made to be her worst singing voice ever. Forget that. Was God even up then? Because if I was God, I wouldn't be. Didn't my mom know I was attending "Bedside Baptist" that Sunday? The service was being led by Pastor Pillow and Sister Sheet. I didn't want to rise or shine. I'll leave that to the sun, thanks. And I'm supposed to give God what? That wasn't happening. It was too early to start that nonsense. Plus, I didn't have an ounce of glory in me at that hour. I don't recall my mom eating Wheaties in the morning, but sometimes it seemed that way.

(Update: I currently have a deep appreciation for mornings with the help of my Keurig which I refer to as God.)

Along with being a sound sleeper, I may or may not have been a sleepwalker (please note the past tense, as I've come a long way). Being a sleepwalker can be a dangerous thing. You are a danger to not only yourself but to those around you. You end up doing crazy things like eating 5 bags of potato chips and putting the remnants in your freezer or peeing in your closet. Hopefully you never end up combining the two (e.g. peeing in a freezer). I wouldn't know from personal experience, but I have a feeling that could get ugly for everyone involved.

Sleepwalking predominately occurs in children and most children outgrow their sleepwalking habits. While this may be true, sometimes I feel like everyone is sleepwalking through life. We are awake, but are we fully aware? We go through the motions of our day in a zombie-like state. Work, eat, sleep, repeat. We aren't "risin' and shinin'." We're risin' and burning out.

Why are we here? Going to work, eating chips while peeing in a freezer, and sleeping...is this really all there is?

Jonathan Foreman, lead singer of Switchfoot, says it best in his lyrics:

Maybe we've been livin' with our eyes half open.
Maybe we're bent and broken.
We were meant to live for so much more.
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside.
Somewhere we live inside.
We want more than this world's got to offer.
And everything inside, screams for second life.


We were made for so much more. God wants our attention. It's time to wake up.