Read the full issue of this week’s Liberal here.

From Rev. Justin Schroeder this week:

In these beautiful spring days, I like to wake up early, to greet the rising sun, to hear the birds singing, and to have time to center myself for the day. This morning, I woke up thinking of those who have died, who are no longer with us physically, yet surround us as beloved witnesses, encouraging us, whispering to us, and inviting us into lives of meaning and purpose. This morning, the words of the 13th-century theologian, scholar, and mystical Sufi poet, Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (also simply known as Rumi), came to me:

“The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you
Don’t go back to sleep!
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep!
People are going back and forth
across the doorsill where the two worlds touch,
The door is round and open
Don’t go back to sleep!”

There is much in the world that can lull us back to sleep, to a life where we only go through the motions of living. Addiction, overwork, the subtle lies of white supremacy, and a desire to numb out – all of these things can lull us back to sleep.

But if we can summon the strength to stay awake, to feel both the pain and the blessing of being alive, to know these things as part of being human – if we can ask for what we really want, and listen to the secrets that ride on the morning breeze – we might discover a connectedness and a source of nourishment that we had forgotten about.

In other words, if there is something waking up in you – a new feeling, a clarity about your life’s direction, a deep knowing that you can no longer carry that heavy secret alone, don’t go back to sleep. Stay awake. Stay connected. Ask for what you need. Reach out to those around you. Together, we will hold what we cannot hold alone. Together, we will stay awake to our lives, and all that is moving in them.

I’ll see you in church,
Justin