Lent Guide: In the Shadow of Gethsemaneಮಾದರಿ

Why are you sleeping?

“Why are you sleeping?” Luke 22:46

We sleep because we have to. If we didn’t sleep, we would lose our minds. Through sleep, we process everything that has happened to us, store important information in our memories, come up with creative solutions – and above all we rest. We physically recharge. Physical (visible) and inner (invisible) sleep are intertwined with each other. Just as important as it is to sleep, it is important to be awake. A problem is that we get up after being asleep, but don’t wake up fully. We awaken in phases and sometimes get stuck in a place where we are in a trance – a conscious state.

Have you ever woken up and found yourself in the twilight zone? Where am I now? What is happening? What day is it? Many of us go through life with such a consciousness. We aren’t aware of who we are, where we are, what is happening within us, and most of all – we are not aware of Him working in our lives. (Don’t sleepwalk through life – 1 Thes. 5). And so, our lives pass us by, and we aren’t really living. It is perhaps one of the big challenges of our existence – that we become tepid and are constantly asleep.

What has caused you to fall asleep? What kidnaps you, and takes you away from an open expanded consciousness of God in your life?

For the disciples, it was grief (Luke 23:45). Worry, the cares of life. Creating images in our heads of everything that could go wrong. A life with the end in sight. Paul says, Make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you doze off, oblivious to God. Be up and awake to what God is doing. It can also be a lot of good things, like doing good things for God, that absorb us to such an extent that we develop a narrow consciousness that excludes His direct presence in the here and now.

Exercise

• Ask God to make you aware of where you lose your consciousness of Him.
• Look at what is planned for your day and take note of instances where you are prone, or that may pose the possibility of you losing consciousness of Him.
• Is there anything you can do to help yourself?
• Ask Him to remind you of Him throughout the day.

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