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All throughout my childhood and adolescent years, the guys would always pick on the individuals who would fall asleep first at sleepovers and snore loudly. I still have a collection of hilarious pranks caught on video and silly pictures that were elaborately set up. Ah, the memories of rudely taking advantage of my poor slumbering friends. Good times. I don't know what exact the reason is, but I simply find listening to people snore incredibly amusing. Even now, I periodically giggle while typing as my good friend Jensen is grunting away on my bed.
Not too long ago, I learned in my Psychology class that snoring was merely a combination of improper sleeping posture combined with heavy nasal cavity pressure which emits a distorted sound of breath. The professor, Prof. Dickinson, also noted that the compression that is created through the throat actually interrupts our cardiac rhythm for a temporal period of time whenever the snoring bursts would occur. In other words, the heart skips a beat. This puts immense pressure on the heart and, over time, can be cause of nocturnal heart failure (dying while asleep).
When I heard this, I did not think much of its spiritual significance. After all, many people wish to die in their sleep to avoid a painful death. However, I felt the Lord telling me that many common church goers today are not only falling asleep, but also snoring away. We are unaware of what is going on around us and the enemy laughs at us. We are no threat to the kingdom of darkness! When a bunch of weak, comfortable, slumbering Christians get together to worship and warfare against Satan, it's equivalent to a bunch of 5'5 guys trying to out-jump a 6'0 guy in Jr High basketball (True story. I actually managed to get a solid 12 pts and 10 rebounds that game though!).
It's a joke.
And that's what our faith has come down to. Christianity today has since become a punchline for cinema, comedians, and books; dismissed as uneducated, ignorant, and judgmental. And the worst part is that as we're being lulled into this deep coma, we are not even aware that our hearts are slowly weakening!
Well, we aren't the only ones. The disciples (haha, these guys are so funny) struggled with sleeping too. When Jesus was praying in Gethsemane, he was interceding with all heart and mind to the point where he was sweating blood (that must have been one intense session with the Lord, but that's another topic for another post). As Jesus wept and cried out to His Father, his loyal disciples were snoozin'! Unbelievable!
I mean, think about it: The disciples publicly VOWED that they will stay loyal and defend Jesus' honor to the death. Jesus took a select few of his disciples, the cream of the crop (Peter & crew), into the last and most critical phase of prayer in Gethsemane before the ultimate plan of crucifixion that would ensure the salvation of all mankind--and these guys decide to take a nap?! LOL! Can these guys get anything right?
Unfortunately, this is a perfect picture of American Christianity today. Jesus is constantly praying and interceding for the nations. What are we doing? We are off in our careers, academics, and own interests in order to benefit our families, our friends and ourselves. It is so easy for us Christians to doze into our religious form of Christianity with little to no fruit. And when we get become hypnotized by the enemy into only caring about our own matters, we won't have the power to influence others'.
Satan ain't a fool--he won't directly confront the saints in face-to-face combat. He fights dirty and attacks when you least expect it. We must, as it says in Isaiah 62, become like watchmen on the tower who gets no rest. Samson wasn't taken captive while he was awake, but rather when he was asleep!
It's time for the church to WAKE UP!
...and, while we're at it, make a trip to the sleep clinic to get one of those snoring mouth guards.
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