Last week we talked about what we treasure most, and how the distractions and demands of daily life conspire to make us forget, run rough-shod over our days till the things that matter most get shoved to the back shelves of our closet. And it is no small thing, to let our deepest treasures (the things at the very heart of us) collect dust. We could fill an entire life with accumulated baggage and clutter, just trying to keep up with the whirl, eyes on the here and now, and lose the unique and beautiful person-God-made-us-to-be in the process…forget where we are headed and why we are here.

It is a conspiracy really, big enough to excite the most paranoid of theorists– the complex web of deception laid down by an Enemy who prowls around us night and day; who seizes every opportunity, every moment of weakness to steal away the potential God created in us; who sings us to sleep with what we can see and taste and touch… until we can’t see anything clearly any more. We might even get to feeling that it hardly matters if we live half-asleep; after all, aren’t we fairly inconsequential individuals in the grand scheme of things? It takes a bright ray of clarity to cut through the clutter and confusion and wake us up to Truth again.

Until we wake up– open the eyes of our souls to God’s way of doing things and His plans for us– we will not be able to keep our Thought Closets cleaned out, put the most important things we treasure on the front shelves and guard them the way we need to. As long as we live half asleep, comfortable under the blanket of deception, we will miss out on Real Life. The Singer rejoices with eyes wide open, saying “Many, LORD my God, are the wonders you have done, the things you planned for us.” (Psalm 40:5)  And “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand.” (Psalm 139:17-18)

Praise is an undeception–a moment of waking– that opens our eyes to who God is, and reminds us that all is gift; all flows down from the Father of Lights as grace. And when we wake up and focus on God, we can see the Enemy’s lies for what they are– just part of an elaborate plot against the Divine Ruler, with us as pawns to use and destroy. When I choose to acknowledge God’s awesome power and His utter faithfulness and kindness, I do what Satan refused to do: I acknowledge my place in the universe as a being created to worship; I remember that I am made for the pleasure and glory of the Creator; I recognize that it is right and good to serve His purposes and not my own. When the eyes of my soul are open and attentive to my Father in Heaven, I become more Myself than I have ever been– the person God had in mind when He hand-knit me together. Thankfulness is, at its heart, remembering who you are and who God Is, and finding your right and meaningful place in the grand scheme of things again….it is a restoration of the way things were in the Garden at the very Beginning, working out salvation in one small corner of the world.

Wake me up out of lethargy and tune my heart to sing Your praise. “…for the light makes everything visible. This is why it is said, ‘Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.’ So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise.” (Ephesians 5:14-15)

“All the wickedness in the world begins with the act of forgetting — forgetting that God is enough, that what He gives is good enough, that there is always more than enough to give thanks for.”  (Ann VosKamp)

“You are my one desire,
You are the holy fire
That burns in me;
The lover of my soul,
God, You don’t let go,
You make Your home in me.

You are my everything–
All I need is in You;
 And all I have,
All I am is in You.”
(My Everything, Jesus Culture)