the sirens of life.

The other night I was laying in bed about to fall asleep. I had a ridiculously long day, and being curled up in my cozy bed with my blankets and obscene number of pillows felt like the closest to heaven one could possibly be.

As I was just about to hit that slow descend into sleep, I awoke fully and noticed something that I don’t normally even hear. Even though it was near 1am, I realized I could listen to an entire world going on outside my window (that whole “city that never sleeps” thing? 100% true). I heard the cars buzzing by, a few people drunkenly laughing with their friends (living close to nightclubs will get you that), and most noticeable - the sound of sirens from a passing ambulance.

Most people would probably get annoyed that all of those noises woke them up just as they were about to hit that nirvana state of sleep. But do you know what the first thought that came to my mind was? It was that I LOVED those noises. I love hearing cars and ruckus and sirens as they (usually) rock me to sleep in my humble little New York City apartment.

But then something hit me. I realized that it’s actually really weird and not normal to love such obnoxious interferences. Sirens especially are not the most pleasant of sounds, and when they’re going by they block out the sound of just about everything else. So a) how in the world did I come to like this sound, and b) how did I come to like the sound so much that I let it become normal, sometimes even unnoticeable to me?

I don’t know if it was because I was so close to that near-sleep stupor or because God wanted to speak to me about something (pretty sure it was the latter), but I began to think about the other “sirens” in my life. I thought, what are those not-so-pretty things that I’ve let into my life and become normal, unnoticed, or even embraced?

Let’s just say I could think of at least few, and they’re things that have more of a presence in my life than I’d like to admit. What I realized about all of them too is that they came into my life gradually. In the same way I didn’t always love falling asleep to the sound of sirens, over time these other sirens in my life snuck in slowly, discretely, and eventually I thought I had no choice but to let them in.

So, what do I do with that? Well, unlike the actual sirens I hear outside my window (which, I’m going to try to leave unnoticed since I can’t exactly control them), I have control over the sirens of life that have snuck in. If I allowed them into my life at some point, I have the ability to kick them back out. I know it’s not going to be easy, though, but thankfully that’s pretty much God’s MO.

Maybe you too have found yourself letting one too many sirens in your life go unnoticed, or even embraced/celebrate them. It may be an unhealthy habit/addiction, a relationship, or even a way of thinking. I just want to encourage you that that does not have to be your normal. Jesus came to save us and sanctify us not because we’re in trouble and need reprimanding, but because He loves us and wants us to experience His fullness of joy in our lives, and to share that unspeakable joy and peace with others.

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Can you relate? Do you have sirens in your life that you may not have even realized?