Matthew 25:1‐13Every morning, people arise ready to face a new day. They make the coffee, read the newspaper and make their morning jog before the darkness turns to light. Then there are the rest of us. The morning comes as an unwelcome intrusion into our rest. When the alarm sounds, we amazingly complete complex mathematical calculations to determine if we have time for ten more minutes of sleep. Even the most chipper morning person that I know occasionally reaches for the snooze bar. Simply put, waking up is hard to do.
At least once a year, we change alarm clocks in our house. We get accustomed to the bells and whistles of one and need another. Thankfully, there are plenty of inventors who are not content to let sleeping dogs lie. I read recently about a clock which launches three puzzle pieces into the air when the alarm sounds. The sleeper must locate the pieces and place them in the correct order before the snooze bar will end the annoying sound.
Why do we have so much trouble awaking? The difficulty has something to do with being so busy. All of us have become productivity mavens over the years, learning to do more with less time. Personally, that’s not my main problem. I’m like that little kid who doesn’t want to go to bed. I think I might miss something exciting. I greedily hold onto yesterday, trying to stretch it out.
Some of us do the same thing in our spiritual lives. We want the love of God. We desire a life motivated by hope. We have experienced the grace found in Jesus Christ. However, we still hold onto our former desires and priorities. We are not ready to be transformed. We cling to old behaviors and attitudes not consistent with our new lives in Christ. When the call comes on Easter morning, we reach for the snooze bar, exhausted.
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). This does not mean that we add a religious category to an already busy “to do” list. Instead our list becomes transformed. We leave behind those things unpleasing to our Savior, and we do everything from this day forward to the glory of God in Jesus Christ.
