When you are on a business trip, harried by transfers from planes to trains to automobiles, you try to get the best sleep you can in a strange bed in a strange room. You know that will be difficult, yet waking up on time the following day is imperative. In the old days—and still, at times, today—in addition to setting the alarm you call the hotel desk for a wake-up call. It’s comforting to know that, in the early morning hours when you are prone to continue sleeping, someone who is wide awake is paying attention to the clock and to your schedule.

We need accountability at all times, even when we are sleeping. And so we rely on other people to look after our welfare by telling us the truth, even at inconvenient or unappreciated moments—like when you’re fast asleep on a new mattress.

In the past two weeks I’ve conducted two interviews with people who spend a lot of their time visiting and talking with Christians nationally and internationally. One of them is Dr. Rosaria Butterfield. A common theme in what they have to tell us is, in essence, “Wake up.”

For those of us who spend the majority of our time in a Christian bubble, surrounded by winsome people with a biblical view of the world, we might be out of touch with how many steps removed our philosophy is from that of unbelievers and some so-called Christians. We might think when such people argue with us about basic things like self and gender and marriage and family and truth, that we are at least talking about the same things. We are not.

Hearing Dr. Butterfield speaking about the times we live in, I am convicted that I too readily bask in my personal world, lingering too long. It is good to spend a lot of our time with godly folks. They provide a foundation and fellowship as well as food for spiritual growth. But they can also provide us with that wake-up call when we are sleeping, that urging to meet the world and make a difference, or even meet one person and share the gospel.

I need to practice, as Rosaria Butterfield practices and advocates, daily repentance. Sometimes that includes repenting of mindlessly or lazily evading contact with unbelievers, and discussions with believers who are deceived. I can’t even be a winsome believer in my Christian circles if I’m not seeking to live in the whole counsel of God, ministering the gospel to the deceived and the lost.