Watchfulness.

The word is carved on a pulpit in the chapel at the Baylor University Spiritual Life Center in Waco, Texas. Until two years ago this worship space was what interior designers call dead space. A couch here. A coffee table there. It reminded Chaplain Burt Burleson of a bank lobby.

Now there are kneelers. A basin and towel adorn a small table near the pulpit. There's nothing new about the large panes of clear glass -- a staple in modern buildings. They filtered natural light before. But now the space has focus and so does the light.

What was dead space is sacred space. Another corner of the world has encountered the reign of God in the right here and right now.

Such a transformation from dead space to sacred space should make us think. It might even make us watchful.

It's a good word for the church. In his instructions to the church at Colossae, Paul asks his readers to be watchful. Leadership trades more often in words like 'vision' and 'future.' These are not bad words. But sometimes our attempts to vision the future blur the world right before our eyes. Vision and future allude to coming events. They're like marks on a trajectory. Watchfulness is more than that. It's a constant state of being and becoming.