Stay Awake!

Mark 13:28-37

³⁷ And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.” (ESV)

³⁷ And what I say to you, I say to everyone: stay alert!” (CJB)

Greek: grēgoreō: To be awake— vigilant, on guard, watchful, attentive, alert.

Sanskrit: bodhi: Awakening— the wisdom, knowledge and alert intellect of a buddha.

(Just so you know, apparently it’s possible to shop for ‘Awake’ and ‘Bodhi’ online. Kohl’s has a line of ‘Awake’ clothes for kids. Amazon has a line of ‘Bodhi Dog’ products including an anti-itch spray for pets. Who knew?)

I also looked up “wokeness” and found a misguided online entry about how the word originally came from Old English, with the meaning of illness or debility. The author of the entry was ignorant about the way Old English is pronounced and had confused the modern word “wokeness” with Old English “weakness” (from wac: weak, pliant, soft) which was spelled variously ‘wakenes’, ‘wacnys’, and ‘wacnysse’.

The author’s ignorance led me to happily conflate the meaning of “woke” and “weak” — Is it weak to be woke, or woke to be weak? Is it weak or is it woke, to be meek? Shall the meek weak inherit the earth, but only if they are awake?

All silliness aside— Jesus made a big point of this particular advice,  repeating it often, and it’s definitely good advice:

Stay Awake!   Pay Attention! It’s as simple as that!

If you see the buds on the trees, you know that spring is coming—  it isn’t enough just to see something without considering its meaning.

We holler at each other “Watch out!” and  “Look out!” when we notice that someone is not paying attention and a collision is imminent. It might be an open cupboard door threatening our heads; or it might be the car turning left in front of us as we cruise through the intersection.

—So—

Wake up and smell the coffee!