Sunrise

When I am in Singapore, the three major rooms, living, master bedroom, and guest bedroom, all have full glass walls facing east.  Unless you intentionally block the morning’s sun, you will wake up!  As simple and obvious of a fact that this is, I often find myself going to bed musing about the Singapore night skyline, wondering to myself what stories the twinkling lights are waiting to tell.  You might think that I would learn.  I never do.  Sunrise comes and as often as not I wake with bright sun clouding my view. 
Bright sun, warm rays contrasting with the forever running air conditioning, does not automatically mean that I am awake.  I hit the metaphorical snooze button and find myself dozing in and out of the warmth, hoping I will sleep, but always succumbing to the sun’s invitation to start a new day.
I have come to realize that the dawning sun’s light is a recurring invitation to engage in the business of living.  It is not an invitation that one should take lightly.  It is a recurring invitation God extends to each of us.  “Brush off the dust and get to your feet, captive Jerusalem!  Throw off your chains, captive daughter of Zion!”  (Isaiah 52.2) 
We have a standing invitation to live, really, fully, and completely live in this world.  We do not live in a time where we can afford to sleep through.  There are too many individuals dying because someone is not willing to act.  There are too many individuals suffering for a lack of mercy.  There are too many who stand alone, slowing dying for lack of community.
I have no idea what today will bring.  I do know there are far too many ugly stories that are filled with evil.  We can write new stories, ones filled with gifts of relationship, acts of kindness, and introductions to beauty and awe.  We can be the history makers writing a new history.  Everything is possible yet it requires us to wake up, accept the invitation, and engage.  Today’s down is here, now.