Don’t Be the One Buying Oil at Midnight
A modern take on readiness, distraction, and what it means to live awake
Welcome to today’s reflection.
It begins with a wedding story from my own family that still makes me smile, but it opens the door to one of Jesus’ most searching parables about readiness, distraction, and what it means to live awake to the deeper things of life.
As always, thank you for being part of the paid Sacred & Secular community. Your support doesn’t just sustain the writing; it creates the space for these slower, more reflective pieces to exist in the first place.
There is a family story about my brother’s wedding that we still chuckle about today. On the day, he looked great, suit pressed, hair sorted, calm as you like. Until someone noticed his shoes. Or rather, his trainers. There he was, all set for the biggest day of his life, wearing the same trainers he’d cut the grass in. The best man was amazing, led him hastily down the road, in a full tuxedo, to buy a pair of formal shoes before the wedding car arrived. He made it back to the church with minutes to spare.
We still tease him about it, but it is a reminder of how much preparation goes into some of the big moments of our lives: weddings, funerals, Christmas, birthdays, even Sunday roasts. As a Vicar, I witnessed a lot of stress from families trying to get every detail right.
So, with that in mind, consider one of Jesus’ most famous stories about being ready, the parable of the ten virgins (or bridesmaids, as some translations put it).
