Even my lazy antics of avoiding the laundry and cleaning up all Emma's toys is nothing compared to Victoria working in the Hermann Pediatric ER tonight. It is 10:30 pm and she has another 8 and a half hours to go. Compared to the needs she is dealing with and the stress of the ER, I may as well be asleep right now!
Whenever I am stressed, what do I do? I fall asleep. If you ever see me really tired, avoid me at all costs because I am usually on the verge of being so stressed out that I could snap at any moment! As I lazily type on the computer, God has placed a burden in my life to wake up spiritually and not miss what is happening around me.
How much do we miss out on when we are asleep? Whenever I am home really late from a practice or gig of some sort, I come home and 98% of the time, Victoria is still up. She can't stand the fact that she might miss something if I'm awake. Perhaps that is why I am still awake as well. Don't get me wrong, I will NOT be staying awake until 7 am when Victoria gets home.
Are you simply walking with your spiritual eyes closed? Speaking only for myself--yes! How many people do I come into contact with at work, at the store, even good friends who have needs that go deeper than a casual conversation that I am so willing to give? I have heard it said how superficial we are as Christians when we are at church and someone asks how we are doing and we simply say "fine". There is always a call and charge to have deeper relationships that go further than the fine response but are we even aware of other's fine responses? How many fines do we hear daily and not even take the time to look in their eyes and see that their fine is the furthest thing from reality?
Romans 12:15 says that we are to "rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn." How can we expect to do that if we are sleeping? Sometimes I let my own issues cloud my mind so much that when I sleep, I cannot wake up to hardly anything. Emma could be making noise, there could be a storm outside my window, and the cats could be breaking all the glasses on the table and I can sleep and deeply as if I were in a cave in the middle of no where. That is the same as Christians who are asleep. There are people who are rejoicing and we walk right past them and do not encourage their joy, rather we simply hear their fine and assume all is normal in their lives. There are also people who are mourning and we sit next to them on the pew for a hour and a half at church on a Sunday morning and don't even think to look to our right or left and notice how they cannot even muster an ounce of joy in order to sing two words of the worship that morning. Instead, we simply shake their hand when we are told and give them a friendly "have a good week" as we wait impatiently for them to gather their Bibles and children so they can allow us to exit the pew.
The biggest challenge I faced in the 6th grade other than all the other 6th graders was to memorize James 1:19-27. (Christian school of course) Every once in a while I remember something it said and it just now makes sense to me. In verse 22 it says not to simply listen to the word and forget, but to do it. God commands us in Romans to rejoice and mourn with our fellow believers. God usually doesn't suggest things for us to do. He didn't say for us to sort of like Jesus and kind of do the 10 Suggestions. God demands faith and commitment. A part of that is to obey His Word.
How can we do that if we are spiritually sleeping? Simply put--we can't.
We need to wake up our souls and truly ask God to allow us to see needs and to be compassionate about our fellow believers. Mankind is hurting. We are to be Jesus to the people we see daily. Jesus did not sleep when there was a need. We read that his disciples did and He was saddened. He needs us to stay awake with Him. There is a lost and dying world that needs faith. Faith in Christ. Faith in God. Faith in the Holy Spirit producing a stirring in them that will ultimately change their lives.
Coffee usually keeps me up for at least 30-45 minutes when I need it to. I pretend that it wakes me up, but truly I just like the flavor. For others, I've heard, if they have coffee after 6 pm they will be awake for another 8 hours. The mission God has given us of making disciples should be that triple shot of espresso in our spiritual cups! As cheesy as that sounds, there has to be something that urges us to persevere. If nothing moves us to stay awake for the lost, then we need to reevaluate our closeness to our Savior. He hasn't gone anywhere. He is still the same as He was yesterday and is the same He promised He will be tomorrow. The desire to see the Holy Spirit use us to plant a seed, help someone understand something in the Scripture, or even to accept Christ as Lord should keep us awake!
Allow God to use whatever He needs in order for us to stay awake. Ask Him to make you uncomfortable. Pop-culture Christianity would phrase it to take you out of your comfort zone but even that is a comfortable way of saying it. God, mess me up! Make my focus solely on You so that none of me clouds my path and puts me to sleep!
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