During an extended (unscheduled) power failure at the office this week, I picked up Beatrice Chestnut's book on the Enneagram, in which she says that many of us "exist in a kind of waking sleep". So much of what we think and do each day is controlled by unconscious habitual patterns that have been in place since our childhood. The book goes on to speak about the Enneagram as a helpful tool for waking up - becoming more aware of our automatic thought and behaviour patterns and why we do the things we do. That image of sleepwalking through life has stayed with me however. It's a common picture in the Scriptures too - in John's gospel especially, we see Jesus repeatedly helping those he encounters to open their eyes and see the truth. Wonderfully, Jesus is inviting us to be freed from the invisible constraints within which we live.
Ephesians 5: 13-14 puts it like this: And when all things are brought out to the light, then their true nature is clearly revealed; for anything that is clearly revealed becomes light. That is why it is said, “Wake up, sleeper, and rise from death, and Christ will shine on you.”
May we experience what it is to have Jesus help us live with our eyes wide open!