Before I begin with the *last* of my “Lenten” blog series I want to say that I have really enjoyed writing something Lenten every week, it helped keep me focused on Lent and on Christ’s struggles. That being said, I figured I would wrap up this series with a few final thoughts on my Lenten sacrifice and what it means to be in the Easter season. Also, I am taking suggestions (comment below!) for the theme of this Wednesday series from here on out. I know I have a few series that I’ve done before and I’m okay with picking up one of those again but I’d love to hear from you as to what you would like to read! Comment away!
Oh Easter, how I love that you have brought my snooze button back to me. Giving up my snooze button (as I’ve said before) taught me that sleeping in wasn’t the only thing I was “sleeping” on. There are times that there seems to be so much to do in a day that I wonder how I’m ever going to get it all done. Then I look at the days and weeks ahead and simply want to get to a time where my life isn’t so chaotic. I realized a few days ago that once again I’ve double or even triple booked myself because there seems to be so much to do that I struggle to remember it all. It is humbling to remember that I can’t be in two or three places at once and it is in those moments of humility that I wake up to what is really important in life. The tasks at my job are important but they aren’t, at the end of the day, what truly matters to me. What matters most are people, relationships, and, of course, God. What matters most are the people I think of in my waking moments and the memories I recall as I close my eyes to sleep. What matters most is family, loved ones and the beauty of the created world. Everything else is just details.
So, as I’ve gone back to pushing my snooze button – not as frequently, I might add – I still try to take time to be awake. Some mornings I push the snooze button and then lay there and say a few extra prayers for those people who first crossed my mind as I awoke. Sometimes being awake means that I don’t doodle during staff meetings. Sometimes being awake means putting in the extra effort to talk to a friend even if I’m tired and worn out. My point is that there are different ways of being awake and while I am certainly glad I get to push my snooze button on my alarm clock again, I’m praying that this Lent taught me to not push the snooze button on life anymore – it goes by too fast and it is far too easy to miss the beauty of life for the finite details of it all. May we all be fully awake and may we never miss the beauty of life in all its glorious splendor, not for anything.
