Awake

Here is another way to look at what I am doing:

I, like my dad, play a mean air guitar.
I, unlike my dad, can actually play the guitar - though not very well.
My guitar playing skills plateaued significantly after two brilliant years of strumming and fingerpicking, courtesy of Carlos de la Barrera (I've always loved saying his name).

Nevertheless, I still have this dream of being in a rock n’ roll band. But it’s not going to happen. Never will.

But there’s another kind of band that I’m a part of. A band of brothers and sisters following Jesus. Now the general name for this band is “church,” and within this worldwide band called "church" there are individual bands with their own names. Most days, you probably drive past the buildings where these bands gather, and the buildings have the band's name on them. It's easy to confuse the band with the building because we use the same word for both: church. "Church" best describes the band, the people - not the building (I guarantee you that I will write more about this in the future, so don't worry if I'm not making any sense to you right now!).

Now I’m not sure whether or not the local band that I am going to help start will have a building, but it will definitely have a name. It will need a name. Fortunately for me, I love to name things. I think it’s in my genes. And, since at this point, this band/church only has two people (assuming Cherie is coming with me), I have a pretty significant say in what the name will be.

When i comes to names, there is a word that has stuck with me for the last few months:

Awake...

An adjective. A verb. It both describes a state of being and offers a challenge.

Awake...

I just can’t shake it, even if it is the name of a Jehovah’s Witness magazine.

“The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here.”
-Paul, Romans 13.11-12

“I’m wide awake… I’m not sleeping.”
-U2, “Bad” (check out Bono's perhaps prophetic words half way through the video)



“Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
-Paul, Ephesians 5.14

And my favorite song, “Wake Up” by Arcade Fire. Here is them singing/playing the song with ("don't call me Sir") David Bowie.



The word “Awake” seems to describe everything that the church is called to be.
Awake to what God has done, is doing, and will do in the world.
Awake to the reality of sin and evil in the world and in our hearts.
Awake to the movement of that wild goose we were talking about – God’s Spirit.
Awake, as in alive with the new life that comes in/from Jesus the Messiah through his death and resurrection.
Awake, as in active, alert, attentive.
Awake, as in… not sleeping.

The word "Awake" has also signaled (for the most part) a good season for the church in North America, a time when the church was being who it was supposed to be and making a difference in the world.

Let us awake!