I’ve been reading through the book of Romans as part of my morning time with Jesus. It’s such a rich book, filled with lots of truth and I’ve been highlighting so much of it as I’ve been going through it. The other day I was reading in Romans 13 and I came across this verse;

And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed Romans 13:11 (NIV)

Without studying further I am unsure why the church in Rome was slumbering but I know it certainly made me think of where we are as the church today. I think before COVID many of us in the church were sleepwalking a little bit and my deepest hope was that out of the craziness of this season that the church would wake up and remember who she and what she is called to do

I still have hope that this will be the case

We have a phrase in Northern Ireland when someone is sleepy or moving slower than we would like – “Give yoursel’ a shake!” we exclaim! Basically what we are trying to communicate is that the person in question has the ability to wake up and get moving, they just need to make the choice and get going.

I wonder if this is what we have to do as the church? I wonder if too many of us are sitting waiting for something to happen when in fact we might need to just give ourselves a shake……choose to reengage with the mission of Jesus….awake from our slumber?

I’m just not sure coming out of this season there is going to be a magic moment, a day when it’s all OK. I ‘think’ that there is going to be many decisions we will have to make over many days. I don’t think that it will feel automatic but instead we will have to make the choice to engage and step in.

I guess we need to think what the everyday small choices are that we will need to make over the coming days. It’s like we’ve accepted that it is ok to be asleep because COVID has given us that permission. Whilst I disagree with that thought, surely coming out of the pandemic will certainly not afford us that luxury.

Church, let’s awake from our slumber…..