It is amazing how toddlers communicate their thoughts. If Anna Jean is talking about something she is about to do or a place she is about to go, she says that it is awake. If she is not able to do what she wants or go where she wants, she says that it is sleeping. For example, we drove over to Chick-fil-A one evening, not realizing it was closed that particular day. The building was dark. There were no cars in the parking lot. Anna looked out her window and said, “Chick-fil-A is sleeping.” When we came back the next week, Chick-fil-A was busy. There were cars everywhere. She said, “Chick-fil-A is awake.”
One Saturday afternoon, we were driving by the church building. Once again, she looked out her window and got really excited. She was clapping her hands, stomping her feet, and yelling at the top of her lungs, “Church! There’s church! I want to go to church! I want to go to Bible class!” Leslie and I explained to her that no one was at the building and that we would come back the next day for worship and Bible class. Her response? “Oh, the church is sleeping.”
While she simply meant that no service was taking place in the building, the way she said it really got me thinking: Is the church sleeping? When it comes to loving God with everything we have and loving our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:37–39), is the church sleeping? When it comes to discipling and teaching the next generation (Deuteronomy 6:4–7; Psalm 145:4), is the church sleeping? When we see that the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few (Matthew 9:37), is the church sleeping? When it comes to encouraging one another, bearing one another’s burdens, and living life together as the family of God (Ephesians 2:19; Galatians 6:2; 1 Thessalonians 5:11), is the church sleeping? When it comes to passionately serving God (Romans 12:11; Titus 2:14), is the church sleeping? When it comes to worshiping in spirit and truth (John 4:23–24), is the church sleeping? When it comes to the opportunities God gives us to do good to all people (Galatians 6:10), is the church sleeping? When it comes to speaking the truth in love and growing up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ (Ephesians 4:15), is the church sleeping?
If we answer any of those questions, or any others that could be asked, with “yes,” then it is time for the church to wake up. As Paul writes in Romans 13:11–12, “Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” Or in 1 Corinthians 15:34, “Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning.” Or in Ephesians 5:14, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Or in 1 Thessalonians 5:6–8, “So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.”
Let’s not walk through life spiritually asleep. Instead, let’s wake up and remain awake until our Lord returns. There is work to be done, and there is an eternal reward to be received. As our Lord said, “Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming” (Matthew 24:42). Truly, “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes” (Luke 12:37).
-Tyler Alverson