Lent Guide: In the Shadow of Gethsemaneಮಾದರಿ

...Wake up

When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. “Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. – Luke 22:45-46a

Jesus knows why His disciples are sleeping, yet still, He asks… why? It’s like He wants to find out from them/us what is happening, what you are experiencing, what is happening inside you. But with that, also the invitation to wake up to what is happening. Immediately, the words of Paul come to mind in Ephesians 5, where he says: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” “Wake up” is an invitation to be present, to walk this road with God, but not to live with judgment either around that which you don’t achieve or are not. It’s not only becoming awake but becoming alive.

Jesus says: Wake up! Open your eyes. Look at what’s happening around you. I am still here. I am still working. It is dark, but the morning is coming!

"Wild Geese" offers the reader wisdom in a tender, peaceful way. She tells the reader that when you experience despair or feelings of discontent, you should look at nature and the wild geese. It’s as though Oliver acknowledges all the demands of society as well as the pressures it has put on your shoulders. And to be awake to the one who stands beside you, asking why… why are you sleeping? Why are you encumbered? Why do you grieve? Get up, let’s go.

Exercise

Take some time in your day to just look around you – what do you see? Ask God to make you aware of that from which you must wake up, to help you to be present in what is happening in the now.

What do you feel invited to wake up from? Maybe a relationship or a situation?

Prayer: I ask for a deep consciousness of Your love and work in my life.