“Wake up, my spirit; awake, lute and harp; I myself will waken the dawn.”

Psalm 108 is like a Dickens book opening. It is the best of times and the worst of times. For more, I encourage you to read it for yourself. Today, however, I chose the ‘best’ of times.

I love the opening words of this psalm. Self-talk to the ol’ spirit? Count me in. The writer is so enamored with God that they are planning to brighten the world, themselves. To wake up with that kind of commitment of spirit and faith and hope and love and excitement. I long for that every day. Some days it doesn’t happen, but recently? It’s been a thing.  

I don’t know about you, but the fire in my soul blazes sometimes and at others, it turns into embers. The embers are good; they are a bedrock that can erupt at any moment, just waiting for fuel. I stoke them with tools of fellowship, worship, and conversations with God and my neighbor. They are constant. They are my faith. The flames, however, are a different thing. They turn into a raging inferno, yearning to consume the furious longing of God in love. The dimness flees from the firelight. My soul is awake. It is singing. And my heart leaps with joy at the sound of God’s gentle love urging the flame to grow.

That’s why the words, “Wake up, my spirit” mean so much to me. While I love and appreciate the embers, I yearn for the flame. I know it doesn’t last forever, but the moments in which it is returned to the gentle glow are reminders that no flame can burn forever. It reminds me of my mortality, my ups and downs, my spiritual wellness. Stoking those embers again and again is the work I must do to return the flame.

I hope you experience something like this in your own soul. Whether it be the metaphor of fire or something else, I believe each of us has a wellspring in our depths yearning to be tended. I hope today’s words will encourage you, as they do me, to do that work of soul tending. God is the creator of our sacred temples and our eternal souls; we are responsible for their well-being.

Tend well. Tell your spirits to wake up, to flood this world with love and to give yourself some, too. Awaken the dawn?

Let’s awaken the world.

Faithfully,

Fr. Sean+