“Florida is where woke goes to die.” -Ron DeSantis
“And what I say to you I say to all: keep awake.” -Jesus Mark 13:37
Earlier in the week I heard this quote from Ron DeSantis on the news. He spoke it from a political viewpoint. I call such quotes “emotional hooks.” A quick statement to cause an immediate emotional reaction to make one choose sides. Where my ponderings have really occurred, this week was wondering if Mr. DeSantis had an inkling his words spoke against Christian Spirituality.
Jesus is one of the most, if not the most spiritually awake people to ever grace the planet earth. In spiritual tasks we work through prayer and practice to become more awake. The term “woke” is slang for one who is awake or aware of particular things in life. In modern terms one could, theoretically, call Jesus “woke.” My training in Christian Spirituality and Wisdom over the past eight years has been to become more conscious of how I and others are spiritually asleep. The places in our lives where we do not want to wake up to God’s presence, vision or way are where we are spiritually asleep.
Every Advent we are greeted from one of the Gospels with the words, “Keep Awake!” Stay vigilant. We do not know the time or hour which Christ will come so we must stay awake. We are encouraged to be awake in scripture. Jesus wants us to be woke to the Spirit of God in our lives and the message of abundant love and radical grace he brings. Jesus turned no one away. (Personally, I don’t think Florida’s tourist industry wants to turn people away either.) We should be very careful if we believe certain people, individuals, are beyond the scope of his radical grace. We need to be careful if we strive to limit learning and understanding to diverse paths of people in our world.
I’ve learned many new insights through spiritual wellness. One is it is very (and I mean very), easy to remain asleep. Remaining asleep leads to rigidity and inhibits growth. Two, waking up takes courage. Jesus imploring us to “keep awake” requires us to take a hard look at ourselves and the longings of our hearts. Waking up has for me and many others, revealed where we have chosen to follow false prophets and leaders for personal power and comfort. People want us to remain asleep so we will blindly follow them and allow them to tell us what’s best. Waking up to Jesus allows us to be faithful to God over anyone else.
We all “fall asleep” from time to time. We all will fall prey to the “emotional hook”. Jesus, remember is all about radical grace and acceptance. So, we are always welcomed home into his fold. If given a choice I will always choose to seek awakeness as it keeps me tuned into what is important to Jesus.
In Christ – Keep Awake!
Rev. Wendy