As a new father and uncle I’ve been around a lot of newborns recently. They sleep the most at the beginning so we track how long they stay awake – their wake windows.

How often in our lives are we asleep – on auto pilot through the days, weeks, months? And what seasons in our lives have been significant wake windows? Where we’ve felt fully alive and proud of what we are accomplishing? What has woken us up in the past and if we’re sleeping now, what has the power to wake us up today, and keep us awake?

Determination to grow, love for others, and activities that recharge us are a few sources of this power. If you believe in God, He is the ultimate source.

Let’s start or extend our wake window, and make our time count by solving ever more important problems and spending time with the people that mean the most to us. Life is too short to sleep through.