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Do you hear the call? We’re quite a group, you know — saved by grace, we sit in pews across the nation every Sunday. Bibles occupy bookshelves in our homes, we pray before meals. We’re good people, for the most part. We get it wrong sometimes, but we try. We have different interests, sometimes different interpretations, different personalities. One common Savior.
But we’re sleeping, and it’s time to wake up. There’s work to be done.
When we go to sleep at night, our bodies do not actually rest. The cells use that time to generate new growth, and our brains sort through everything that happened in the day. For the body, sleep is productive and necessary. But our bodies aren’t meant to stay asleep — all that regeneration gives us energy to tackle the new day, and so we wake up, drink some coffee and get going.
For whatever reason, we’ve been sleeping spiritually. Do you feel that? See it? Here’s a short list. Feel free to add on through comments and I’ll post them on the list below.
1. We’re afraid of unbelievers. They might rub off on us, so we create a little Christian cocoon around ourselves to feel safe.
2. We can’t get enough of God’s word but don’t know where to put it.
3. We’re not sure if we’ve felt the Holy Spirit.
4. We think faith is logical. A supernatural deity who created something out of nothing and gave humans eternal spirits, saving us through a virgin birth, a resurrection, and then this Person is currently alive in heaven “interceding” for us as we speak? Sure, sounds perfectly logical to me.
5. We feed our churches but fail to feed the poor.
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6. Too Busy. When you work the kind of hours that I (and most Americans) do, after a while it lulls you to sleep. Days, months, weeks go by and finally that still small voice hits you, usually early in the morning before your day starts, or at night when we go to bed, when it is quiet. I am hearing that voice even less often, and that is starting to worry me.
7. Fear of joy. Ideally the Christian message would only attract people who wanted to be filled with joy. But unfortunately, the message is twisted to validate people who are afraid of joy. That’s what causes legalism. Joy is life changing event, and status quo hates it.
8. Pointing out the nonbeliever’s “bad choices” expecting them to somehow still live by God’s rules when they don’t have a personal relationship with Him.
9. Spending all of our time telling God how big our problems are instead of telling our problems how big our God is. (guilty)
10. We think the world stops at our feet. How self-centered I can be sometimes! All those people out there, not only in my city, not only the ones I know personally, but in the whole world, needing a Savior’s love.
Any others?
But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, or it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Be very careful, then, how you live–not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Ephesians 5:13-16
If you read my previous post, then you know that I’m trying my best to break free from an “addiction” to online news media. And then you might also notice that this new post is merely one day since the last one. That has never happened before. Like a smoker who habitually reaches for a cigarette, I continue to sit down at the computer on a regular basis, only to remind myself that CNN isn’t an option.
So then what? I open my latest Word document and write for a while, and as the minutes turn into hours I realize I’m getting more work done. I spend time reading more blogs, commenting, sending emails to people I’ve been thinking about. I make that phone call, write that letter. All that stuff I wasn’t doing before is now getting done!
The other night I was commenting on an atheist’s blog when my husband asked me what I was doing. We then got into a much-needed conversation about faith. The addicted-me would have filled his ears with all that negative news. How sad and counterproductive that would have been!
Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things. Phil. 4:8
Hi! I’m Anna, and I’m a news addict. If I get too far away from any of the “breaking news” websites or TV channels, I go into withdrawal. What’s happened out there in the last two hours? Two days? I have to know!
This really puts a damper on my social life, not to mention my personal stress level. ”Did you hear about the latest suicide bombing? What about that guy who gouged out his own eye? Do you think the fighting in the Middle East will ever end? Can you believe this financial mess?”
I’m just a blast at dinner parties.
So here I am, admitting that I have a problem and that it affects my life, and also those around me. I’m proud to say that I haven’t visited CNN, ABCNews, FoxNews, AP, or Reuters since Sunday, although I have checked weather and the latest headlines on my local channel. I gotta know what to wear, of course! And if there’s an escaped convict running through my neighborhood I would like to know that, too. But being reasonably informed sure beats obsessive news-checking every 30 minutes.
I wonder what I should do with all this extra time?
