.awake, my soul.

good morning!
forgive me for being absent for so long.
it has been a week since Passion ended and i've spent the past 7 days trying to process and re-process everything i heard and learned. 
goodness.
i keep going back to the first talk louie giglio gave to our little group of 45,000.
it blew me away.
like louie's talks usually do. [remember this?]
he spoke from [luke seven: eleven - seventeen]

…………………...

 ¹¹ Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. ¹² As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. ¹³ And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” ¹⁴ Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” ¹⁵ And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. ¹⁶ Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” ¹⁷ And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.

…………………….

louie described Jesus as an interrupter of funerals.
i mean seriously, can you imagine being there, in a funeral procession, and a man walks up and tells your dead son to [arise]??  
i'm not sure if i would laugh or cry.
just like the dead man, we were all dead before Jesus saved us.
we were all on our own stretchers being carried out to our graves.
sin put us in an eternal grave, but Jesus gave us eternal life.
Jesus enters our lives and says [wake up, oh sleeper. rise up from the dead!]
he brought us back from the dead to live lives filled with hope.
that his name and renown would be the desire of our souls.
one more thing.
the name of this town Jesus was in means [beauty]
and in this town Jesus created beauty from the ashes of the dead man's life.
we have an incredibly purposeful maker.
think about this.
you are dead. 
about to be buried in the ground.
you're a goner.
then someone touches you, says [arise!], you open your eyes, and the first thing you see if the face of Jesus. your savior. i can't think of anything more beautiful.
awake, my soul. you were made to meet your maker.