Awake Deprived (Luke 9)

Here’s a little behind-the-scenes fact you may not know. When my book was in it’s first stages it had a totally different name. It was “Awake Deprived.” My idea was that we always hear about being sleep deprived – people who aren’t getting enough sleep, but most people’s real problem is that we’re awake deprived – we’re not getting enough awake … we’re not awake enough.

Well, my publisher didn’t like that name, but I still do, and I still think it’s our problem. And in today’s reading (Luke 9) we see three of the disciples who had something insanely awesome happening right next to them, but almost missed it because they were too sleepy. And it’s not until they become fully awake that they get to experience the supernatural.

And I wonder how often I’m awake deprived? I wonder what I’m missing, maybe right in front of my eyes, but I’m not awake enough to see it? I wonder if a prayer we should be praying throughout our days is, “God, wake me up. Keep me awake. Open my eyes to see what I’m missing”?