Don’t Hit Snooze on Your Spiritual Life

What would your life look like if you knew tomorrow was your last day? As the Coptic year draws to a close, Fr. Daniel Meleka reflects on Christ’s call to live with watchfulness, urgency, and readiness. When the disciples asked Jesus when the end would come, Christ did not give them a date. Instead, He taught them how to live. Fr. Daniel highlights three powerful warnings from the Gospel: 1. Don’t be deceived. The devil rarely begins by telling us to abandon Christ completely. Instead, temptation often sounds like: “Pray tomorrow.” “Skip your Bible today.” “Confess next week.” Spiritual deception often begins with small compromises. If we know Christ, know the Scriptures, know the life of prayer, know the Eucharist, and remain rooted in the life of the Church, we become much harder to deceive. Just as someone trained to identify counterfeit money studies the real thing, the Christian must become deeply familiar with the Truth. 2. Don’t be afraid. Christ never promised that His followers would avoid suffering. In fact, He warned His disciples that they would face tribulation, persecution, uncertainty, and hardship. What He promised was something greater: He would be with them through it. Like a pilot remaining steady through turbulence, Christ remains unshaken even when everything around us feels uncertain. The Christian life does not mean there will be no turbulence. It means we know Who is guiding us through it. 3. Don’t sleep. It is easy to keep hitting the spiritual “snooze button.” “I’ll pray later.” “I’ll confess next week.” “I’ll forgive them eventually.” “I’ll start reading Scripture tomorrow.” But Christ calls us to live awake and ready today. If you knew tomorrow was your last day, who would you forgive? Who would you call? What would you confess? How would you pray? How differently would you love your family, your friends, and the people around you? The Christian life is not about knowing exactly when the end will come. It is about living so closely with Christ that whenever He comes, we are ready. As we prepare to enter a new Coptic year, may we make more than vague resolutions. May we take concrete steps toward prayer, repentance, confession, Scripture, forgiveness, reconciliation, and deeper communion with Christ. As Fr. Daniel reminds us: “You don’t have to get ready if you stay ready.” May each of us be able to say: “Lord, I’m ready anytime.”