O Soul, Awake!
I remember my mother, an accomplished seamstress, threading the bobbin. As line on a fishing reel, or cable on a winch, the thread went back and forth, right and left, seemingly endlessly. But there was an end. The sun has cast its rays upon the earth, year after year, from the northern latitude of the Tropic of Cancer, past the equator, to the southern latitude of the Tropic of Capricorn, and back again; back and forth, for seemingly endless eons. But as the the thread had a beginning and end, it too, shall come to an end, burning itself out.
The sight of vast chunks of ice falling away from glaciers and splashing into the seas gives an ominous feeling that something far bigger than us is occurring. Infinitely greater than the span of a lifetime, those huge glaciers are slowly eroding and making changes in the environment that is awe inspiring to the wisest and most astute scientists. They too, are but finite men, pondering the imponderable. The "greenhouse effect," and the "hole in the ozone layer" are ominous terms that we can but minutely comprehend. Eons, vast spans of time, give witness to constant flux and change. Archaeologists tell us the earth itself is constantly shifting upon plates deep within itself.
As one generation of men fades, a new one arises. Every time I hear of the death of an old saint, I get the same ominous feeling that something bigger than us is happening. If we were to measure ourselves against the lives and consecration of the first generation of Pentecostals, born at the dawn of this century, how might we measure up? Change, unfortunately, almost always means deterioration. Entropy, the second law of thermal dynamics, simply stated is that all things tend to go from order to disorder. A child left to itself brings its mother to shame. A church without discipline veers dangerously toward the world, bringing its mother, the heavenly Jerusalem, shame.
A number of years ago, Denver's taxpayers underwrote the building of a great cultural center. The structure was built, when suddenly, the City Father's feared its cost would far exceed revenues it might generate. What would they do with this virtual albatross hanging about their necks? Upon having it evaluated by experts, they found that if it were left unused it would cost over a hundred-thousand dollars a year - just to keep it from deteriorating! Thus, we see that simply maintaining comes at a high price. Creeping lethargy, neglecting to maintain standards set by our fathers, is taking its toll.
Such were the philosophical thoughts of Paul as he pinned these poignant words, "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light" (Rom 13:11, 12).
