Stay Awake

Tomorrow I'm going with my parents to our monthly Christian Businesspeople's Breakfast. It's my monthly bacon (although it's rarely crispy, it's still bacon)! Here's just a quick thought before I head to bed (contrary to my title).

My church, along with many other international churches in Hong Kong, has been listening to twenty-eight minutes of the Bible a day. By the end of Lent, we'll have listened to the whole New Testament!

They handed out free CDs for us, but I've mainly been listening online at faithcomesbyhearing.com.

They have the Bible in 522 LANGUAGES!!!! Isn't that awesome? Sometimes I just listen to other languages to hear how they sound. I was pretty excited when I listened to Matthew 7 in Cantonese and I understood three words/phrases! Sometimes the voices sound a little funny, but overall I like it a lot. It's definitely a different experience, taking the time to listen instead of read.

Right now I'm in the middle of Luke, and there have been a couple of things that stuck out at me. The main one is the theme of watchfulness and wakefulness. Yesterday I listened to the part that talks about the watchful managers.

And from Biblegateway.com....

Luke 12:

³⁵ “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, ³⁶ like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. ³⁷ It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them.

It seems to me that it's easy to stop watching. I sometimes get caught in my routine that I forget to listen and I forget to watch. I forget my exuberant joy in Christ. I plod about my days, worried about petty things. I also recently listened to the part about the disciples sleeping when Jesus asked them to keep watch right before he died. He was grieved that they couldn't stay awake during such an important time. Will I fall asleep as well? I need to stay awake every day!

There's so much talk about the end of the world with all the craziness that's been happening and the Mayan calendar and all that. I kind of doubt it. Since Jesus said he will come "as a thief in the night" at a time when no one expects him, I doubt it will be in 2012. But no matter. Whether the world is ending in one year or in several thousand, I hope that I will be a faithful servant as long as I am alive.