"Woke"

"You can't wake a person who is pretending to be asleep."

-Navajo Proverb                          

My mind has been racing this morning.

This quote has been on a carousal in my brain that won't seem to stop. 

In the popular 21st century ideology of social justice, there is a term "woke" that refers to understanding social and racial issues and it is primarily used to encourage people to wake up to the realities of the injustices that are taking place in this country/world and to educate ourselves on these painful truths.
Though this term fits the action that needs to take place, I never liked this term (especially because when I heard it most it was from friends saying, "You're pretty 'woke' for a white person", or "You're one of the most 'woke' white people I know"). One of the reason I never resonated with it is because it is associated with the popular secular idea of social justice, which, if you know me, you know I am not content with.  

Why?

Because it is inconsistent- but that doesn't need to be discussed right now.  

This morning, as I pondered on this quote, my mind wandered into this allegory of being awake and asleep.

If someone is actually asleep, you can shake them, scream in their ear, or throw water on them and they will wake up. You know the feeling, you go through it every day. Sometime we wake up on our own in a slow, gradual, peaceful mode, and sometimes we are startled into it. 

But if someone is pretending to be asleep, it doesn't matter if you shake them, scream, or throw water, they will continue pretending sleep because they are willing themselves into it.
For it is the will that keeps those eyes shut, nothing else.

So the question is, do people pretend sleep simply to avoid reality? 

(If you're like me, that carousal is starting to spin.)

We have all pretended to sleep before, so I know you can relate to this illustration. You keep your eyes loosely shut, trying to keep a relaxed face as not to smile, attempt to slow your breathing but finding it difficult to steady your racing heart. It doesn't matter if it's our mom, our lover, our child, someone at the door... we keep fake sleep to avoid the reality awaiting us beyond the thin veils of skin over our eyes.
When faced with the painful realities of this world, do we not do the same thing? We acknowledge and are aware of it's presents, but we refuse to open our eyes to see things for what they really are. For when we keep our eyes closed, we can stay in our own illusion of the reality that we are refusing to accept.

There are so many issues that I have kept my eyes closed to. My eyes were closed to the truth of who God is until grace was experienced and I saw the true beauty of Jesus. My eyes were closed to the truth of racism until I finally gave in to the quaking of this country falling apart because of it. My eyes were closed to the truth of white privilege until I recognized the privilege it was to even be sleeping at such a time as this.

But due to this grace that I speak of, I no longer desire to be asleep. These eyes are willingly open in desperate search of what I have been missing, seeking to find the absolute truth in absolutely everything.
I am a lover of truth- it is my hearts desire to ALWAYS align myself with truth. It is both a passion and a conviction.
I am a realist- an optimistic realist, but a realist.
For this reason, I want to be awake to the realities of this world. Even the ugly, unpleasant ones that are tempting to sleep on.

Surely you desire the same.
But I still think it is important to constantly challenge ourselves on what we might be closing our eyes to and where we might be living in a willful illusion.
What reality are you sleeping on?
Who's words and shaking are you avoiding?
What will it take for you to wake up?



Side thought:
Here is the thing about waking up; you recognize who else is awake and who is asleep. But for those who sleep, they can't recognize those who are awake.