What will it take to get us AWAKE?

I must admit that the alarm clock near my side of the bed has been hit more than once any given morning. But, not today... We were awakened five minutes till six this morning by the sound of squealing tires, the slamming of metals, shattering of glass and a sustaining car horn - an unpleasant combination, to say the least. Assuming a car had lost control and hit a tree behind our house, I went to offer some help. What actually precipitated the early morning alarm was more than I bargained for. As I made my way towards the entrance of our neighborhood, my eyes caught the scene of what I later found out to be a head on collision with a fatality. (When your first experience of a day is to see a dead man hanging out of what's left of a family vehicle, your mindset has taken a different shift for at least the rest of that day.) Several thoughts immediately came rushing into what's normally reserved for a quiet time of reading, reflection and prayer. But such thinking became fodder for a uniquely healthy devotional process that I'm still feeding on: I know he's gone before his own family has been made aware of this tragedy. Secondly, he's alive somewhere right now. Needless to say, I've been "wide awake" from meeting to meeting...still meditating on the changed lives from this dramatic occurrence today.

So, what about you...what does it take to get you AWAKE?!? Have you taken an auto-pilot approach to living? What's happened lately to get your thinking on eternal matters? Sometimes "rude awakenings" can be "reality checks" for our life and mission. But let me be quick to say that it should never take "that" to wake us up. So, what should be waking us up and how do we stay awake...for the more important aspects of living?