<ring, ring> The phone rings in the hotel room. <ring, ring> The phone rings again and again. You roll over and pick it up and slam it back down hoping that would do the trick. <ring, ring> The phone rings again and again and again. This time the sound is so much louder and much more annoying! Ugh! "Can't I just be left alone!" You pick the phone up again and hear a faint voice on the other end, but it is quite muffled because you are holding it in your hand still trying to gather yourself together to decide what you are going to do. As you try and come around the thought enters your mind, "I could hang up and go back to bed." That sounds amazing to you! So, sure enough you think yourself through the steps of hanging up the phone and then follow through and do exactly that. When you finally wake up you notice that it is about 11:15am and panic rushes into your head, body and soul! "I CAN'T BELIEVE I'VE MISSED THE BIGGEST MEETING OF MY LIFE!"Have you been there? You know, having something in your life constantly ringing, trying to get your attention to something very important; the ringing of mom, putting out warnings like, "son, allow others to praise you; don't seek it on your own." Or your mom saying, "son, I continue to pray for you to have sensitivity." (LOL! I am not trying to say my mom is an annoying ring, so stay with me) How about your best friend looking you in the face and telling you to be careful with a certain type of lifestyle? What about your father specifying the need to "think" positive thoughts or a friend saying, "you need to think a positive situation and then chase that vision"? These are wake up calls, trying to get our attention. Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!
I truly believe God sends these wake up calls, because he loves us. He yells out, "Wake up! I love you and I see that this certain thing that you are allowing in your life will eventually ruin you." Or, "Wake up! I love you and this thing that you are doing is going to have a really bad affect on the relationships you depend on." God is constantly saying, "Wake up! I love you!"
But sadly, sometimes we don't wake up to the ringing of the phone until it is too late and then we realize it is too late... Life then has a dark cloud around and everything seems dead. In the book of James, we find ourselves warned of this situation that most of us find ourselves in. He says, "These evil desires lead to evil actions, and evil actions lead to death..." When I've ignored the alarm and followed my own desires (which are usually evil and selfish) I end up killing something. Then we are left with silence, solitude, hurt, pain and absence. Been there?
It is in those times that I am happy to continue reading in the book of James, "... So don't be misled, my dear brothers and sisters. Whatever is good and perfect comes to us from God above, who created all heaven's lights. Unlike them, he never changes or casts shifting shadows. In his goodness he chose to make us his own children by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation..." This is the best part, "... became his choice possessions." Now that is a wake up call!
The wake up call should be the we, fallen, sinful, selfish, prideful people are choice possessions! The wake up call shouldn't be the consequences of our fallen, sinful, selfish prideful ways. So, wake up, because you are a CHOICE POSSESSION!
