An Advent Wake Up Call that Hit Me By Surprise

I was having the most chaotic week ever last week. It was my busiest week at work and I was underwater with issues, personal obligations, and Christmas preparations. Not surprisingly, I was so anxious and drowsy I could hardly pray effectively. I was taking a nose-dive spiritually and I could feel it – succumbing to daily hardships and anxieties, and getting frazzled in the process. 

It had been a long time since stressors hit me that hard to knock me out of spiritual alignment. I had been rock steady for a while.

Then Friday night, I glanced at Facebook and saw that a guy around my age that I knew from the young adult Catholic circles was in critical condition from a deadly car accident that killed two people. He had an 18 month old and a wife. He clearly had a happy and blessed life, and I was utterly shocked. In an instant, everything changed.

Every so often we get these wake-up calls and that particular day, God was giving me a much-needed wake up call. It was as if He jolted me and said “Wake up” like today’s Gospel. Your life could change or end in an instant and would you be spiritually ready for that? Are you laser-focused on Christ as your top priority?

The world beckons us to anxiety and exhaustion - especially this time of year. Meanwhile, our lives are passing in an instant and could end tomorrow if life changes course. I’m not sure any of this hustle and bustle would matter on my last day.

Christ is coming this Christmas and will come again in His second coming. Are you ready? Are you awake? I mean truly awake spiritually to see what really matters in the end? Are you caught up in a lot of anxieties and things that are passing quickly and wouldn’t matter if it was our last day on earth?

Advent is a time to begin again, and to be jolted back to the reality that Christ is coming again. Are we awake to notice what really matters to Christ, to do what matters to Christ, and to live that truth?