If I Should Wake Before I Die?

Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

Hebrews 11:1

Do you remember your first nighttime prayers? If you were like countless other children, you prayed, “Now I lay me down to sleep . . .” Remember that? There’s a line from that prayer that’s worth reconsidering. In fact, it was our friend Tony Campolo who brought it to our attention.

Tony was taking a course in Chinese philosophy during his graduate education. The Buddhist monk who taught the course told him, “As a Christian, you teach your children to pray all wrong. You teach them to pray, ‘If I should die before I wake.’ It would be better if you taught them to pray ‘If I should wake before I die.’”^a

The monk went on to point out that most of the people he knew were half awake when they ought to be asleep. But even worse, when they were asleep, they were half awake. No one seemed to be totally alive. Nobody seemed to be turned on to what was going on around them. He’s got a point, doesn’t he?

Too often we meander through our days without purpose, without energy, and without life. “We examine each day before us,” says Tom Hennen, “with barely a glance and say, ‘no, this isn’t one I’ve been looking for,’ and wait in a bored sort of way for the next, when we are convinced, our lives will start for real.”^b It’s his way of saying we are like sleepwalkers who hope to wake before we die.

So maybe today, whatever time you happen to be reading this, you can pray that God would wake you before you die, and consider how you can live tomorrow for all it’s worth. How can you make your day count? What can you do to find meaning in your moments?

Here’s a place to start: identifying what you really want in your life and in your marriage. Maybe it’s more time with your children. Maybe it’s financial freedom. Maybe it’s to complete a project you’ve been postponing. The key is to identify what you want most from tomorrow. This is what will give you purpose and direction. We have a friend who puts it this way: Know what you ardently desire, sincerely believe in it, vividly imagine it, enthusiastically act on it, and you will live each day for all it’s worth. We couldn’t agree more.

Because of the routines we follow, we often forget that life is an ongoing adventure.

—Maya Angelou

^a 77

^b 78

From the book