Papa Roach - Wake Up Calling

Reflection

A wake up call implies that something has been dangerously easy to ignore, a state of drift or numbness that only a jolt seems able to interrupt, and scripture is not unfamiliar with this kind of alarm. Paul tells the Ephesians to wake from sleep, since Christ will shine on them, language that assumes spiritual complacency is a real danger even for people who consider themselves believers. It is possible to drift through years of faith on autopilot, attending, believing in the abstract, without anything actually changing in how a life is lived, until circumstances or conscience force a reckoning. Music from artists not typically associated with explicit faith content addressing this kind of spiritual alarm suggests the hunger for wakefulness reaches well beyond church walls, into anyone honest enough to notice their own numbness. The uncomfortable value of a wake up call is precisely its interruption; nobody asks for it, but many people, looking back, are grateful it came.

Questions to sit with

• Have you ever experienced a genuine 'wake up call' in your own life, spiritual or otherwise?
• What does spiritual complacency look like in practice, and how would you recognise it in yourself?
• Why might discomfort sometimes be more useful to our growth than comfort?