While Everyone Was Sleeping…

Jesus told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed ears, then the weeds also appeared.
‘The owner’s servants came to him and said, “Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?”
‘“An enemy did this,” he replied.
‘The servants asked him, “Do you want us to go and pull them up?”
‘“No,” he answered, “because while you are pulling up the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: first collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.”’ Matthew 13

This war on “wokeness” has been vexing my nerves for a minute now. It is so ignorant that at first I refused to address it but now that the concept of “woke” is being once again misrepresented for the purposes of promoting a demonic agenda (it’s a spirit), I can’t help but address it.

So I read this parable of Jesus and two phrases stood out. “While everyone was sleeping” and “An enemy did this.”

You see the enemy wants us to sleep while He works. He thrives in the darkness, in the recesses, and undercover. His goal is to distract us by sowing weeds. Weeds, in my point of view, representing the chaos that we’re subjected to every day so that he can do his real down and dirty work behind the scenes. And if we’re “woke” we will see him for what he is. We will see what he is up to and we will be on guard. Not easily fooled or persuaded by his sneakiness. We’ll see that he does not work alone and there is a whole system that props him up & does his dirty work. In other words we won’t be “ignorant of his devices.”

To be “woke” is to be awake to justice issues, and not just to be awake, but to care. Martin Luther King, Jr. once told graduates at Oberlin College that “there is nothing more tragic than to sleep through a revolution. … The great challenge facing every individual graduating today is to remain awake.” King would have known Jesus’ challenge from the Gospel of Mark 13:

“And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”

To declare a war on being “woke” is the antithesis of Jesus’s teaching. Don’t let anyone just tell you dumb stuff and you follow it and repeat it. Wake up and search truth for yourself people! Because while you’re sleeping, the enemy is at work sowing weeds.

Just sharing my morning musings as a Christ follower who follows his teachings and command to stay “woke.”

Faithblogger/Author Michele Bryant Powell
Ebook/Book: 15 Minutes of Unpacking Our Grief