I Don’t Want to Miss a Moment

In bed late and awake early, I had only gotten a couple of short hours of sleep the night before.

My droopy eyelids no doubt revealed just how exhausted I was. But I was determined that the steady hum of the plane’s engine would not lull me into slumber, and the appeal of using my husbands shoulder as a pillow would not lure my head to rest there, no matter how much everything within me screamed for sleep.

We were flying down the East Coast toward the Caribbean, and magnificent scenes of bustling cities and powdery beaches and blue-green waters were a feast for my snow-weary eyes.

The view was too stunning to miss, well worth staying awake for.

I didn’t want to miss a moment.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a pointed post about how Christ-followers need to wake up. As I struggled to literally stay awake on the plane last week, it occurred to me that while I covered the “who” and the “what” and the “how” pretty well in that post, I missed an important aspect of the “why.”

And the “why” is critically important. In fact, it just might be the most important. Because one thing I know about myself is that all the “who” and “what” and “how” I can muster won’t come close to moving me to action.

Motivation is found in the “why.”

Why do Christ-followers need to wake up to the suffering and persecution around us? Why do we need to wake up to the call of the Master of the harvest? Why do we need to wake up to the staggering numbers of blessings we’ve received, and to the staggering responsibilities that accompany them? Why do we need to wake up to the high standard of holiness imparted by our God?

Because we have something worth being awake for.

Friends, you and I have the awesome privilege of viewing God’s glory during this period of time in a way that no one has experienced before now, and in a way no one will experience in the future.

The same God who created the world and all that’s within it. The same God who appeared in a burning bush that wasn’t consumed. The same God who opened blind eyes and raised the dead. The same God who was born to die and hung on a cross for you and for me. The same God who raised from the dead after three days and bodily ascended into heaven before the very shocked eyes of people just like you and me. The same God we’ll worship forever in a heaven so glorious, our minds can’t even fathom its splendor.

Just as He has shown His glory throughout history, He continues to show His glory even today.

Are you longing for it?

Are you seeing it?

Oh, dear friends, it is worth being awake for.

His glory is revealed in countless ways every day, plainly visible to us, His people, if only our hearts are awake and our eyes are open.

He shows His glory in answered prayers. Not just the vague and ambiguous kind. He answers the urgent and specific kind in a way that only He can. Each answered prayer is His glory revealed.

He shows His glory in the way He draws people to Himself. Each saved soul, each redeemed sinner, each ransomed captive is His glory revealed.

He shows His glory in the way He equips His people. He equips them to be whole. He equips them to be complete. He equips them to serve. He equips them to suffer. He equips them to conquer. Each equipping of every saint is His glory revealed.

He shows His glory in His goodness. He’s delaying His return so that His enemies will have time to see the error of their ways and turn to Him. He’s constantly working on your behalf and mine and all of His followers everywhere, to reveal more of His glory in us and through us. He’s providing and protecting, faithfully and bountifully. Each display of His goodness is His glory revealed.

And guess what? As if His glory revealed isn’t enough (and I would propose that it is enough, and so much more than we deserve), He actually lets you and me participate in His glory revealed.

His grace invites us, His love compels us, and our willing receipt of these stunning gifts obligates us.

Are you cooperating with Him? Staying alert to His call, and then jumping into action when the order comes in? Taking your place in history as a Christ-follower who is drawing near and holding fast, standing firm and loving hard? Who cherishes the glory of God more than her next breath, and would even die for it, if her death means His glory will shine all the brighter?

“For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’

is the One who has shone in our hearts

to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God

in the face of Christ.”

(2 Corinthians 4:6)

I don’t know about you, but I yearn to see That face. But until my eyes behold the face of my Savior, I’ve got my heart set on basking in His glory.

And I don’t want to miss a moment.

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