Hitting the Snooze Button

I believe the snooze button on an alarm clock is an insidious and nefarious invention. Although I can’t prove it, I have my suspicions that the person who invented the snooze button is somehow related to the individual who invented the rack or the intestinal crank in medieval times. First the alarm wakes you from a fitful and restful sleep, and then with one bleary eye we notice the snooze button. Everything inside is screaming for just a little more sleep, and so with one push of a button one obtains a five minute respite wherein they can attempt to rediscover that blissful state of unconsciousness. Just as you’re about to descend back into the arms of slumber however, the alarm goes off again.

I think the most sinister thing about the snooze button, is that you never really get back to sleep once you’ve pressed it, and just as you’re about to descent back into your dreams, it goes off again. And so, depending on how many times one chooses to press the snooze button, the individual finds themselves in a state of stupor, not really awake, but never really asleep, until finally, grudgingly, they get out of bed and go about their day.

So what prompted this rant on snooze buttons? Did I miss a flight or a meeting because I kept hitting it? No, there was no unfortunate event due to my use of a snooze button, but as I pondered the spiritual condition of much of today’s church, I realized we’ve been hitting the spiritual snooze button over and over again, even though the alarm has gone off, and we ought to have been awakened.

For years now the church has been doing corporately, and in a spiritual sense, what we often do individually in a physical sense. It has been unwilling to wake up, even though the alarm is blaring, and so rather than come to full awareness, rather than become fully awake, the church has sought out, and discovered various kinds of snooze buttons that they could press, deceiving itself into believing that there was still time to slumber, that it didn’t have to be awake quite yet.

Even though the alarm has been blaring for decades now, there have always been men who offered spiritual snooze buttons of sorts, and even if their reasoning in justifying a continued and prolonged slumber was often times tangential, poorly documented, and even unbiblical, the masses flocked, and clung to these men as though they were life preserves in a stormy sea.

The first spiritual snooze button the church pressed, as far I can remember in the not so distant past, was the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. Well, it can’t be time yet, the temple isn’t rebuilt. We still have plenty of time to do as we will, to disregard God, and chase after earthly things because well, there’s still the matter of the temple, and that seems to be decades away.

The second spiritual snooze button the church pressed, was the resurgence of the Babylonian empire. For a season the church was all abuzz as to how Saddam Hussein was going to rebuild ancient Babylon, and it was going to become a center of commerce once more, growing to such unimagined heights that it would rival any superpower on the globe. Even Saddam swinging from the end of a rope didn’t seem to deter some people, and even though the only thing visible in Iraq, (what some interpret to be end time Babylon), are dust, and sand and the blood of brave American soldiers, they slumber comfortably because well, Babylon isn’t a superpower yet, nor is it a center of commerce, and so we’ve got plenty of time left.

The third spiritual snooze button that the church is currently pressing is the mystical year 2012. Even though there is no Biblical basis for this, and anything having to do with 2012 was extracted from a Mayan calendar, a people who cut the beating hearts out of the chests of men and women in order to appease their dead gods and false idols, the church is once again resting comfortably because well, we have at least two years left until we really have to get ready for anything.

We have dismissed the warnings of God to be instant in season and out of season, we have disregard the words of Jesus who said He would return as a thief in the night, and continue to press the spiritual snooze button because to be blunt, we just don’t want to wake up. If the seasons which are upon us find us slumbering, if they find us unprepared, if they find us in that state between wakefulness and sleep, it is not God’s fault. God has been sounding the alarm; it is we who have chosen to press the snooze button over and over again.

There is nothing the devil loves more than a sleeping Christian. There is no easier prey for the enemy to overtake than those who of their own will have chosen to slumber just a little while longer. Knowing this, the enemy will continue to serve up spiritual snooze buttons for as long as we will press them, because he does not fear infants, he fears spiritual warriors who are seasoned and hardened by spiritual warfare, and who know how to stand their ground.

We must wake up. We must stop looking for excuses to continue our slumber, and simply wake up. We must be about our Father’s business, and work while it is still day because the night will soon be upon us and no man can work when night falls.

Our choice today, will eventually lead us to one of two camps. Either we will be among those who are ready and prepared for the groom’s return, with oil in their vessels and in their lamps, or we will be among those who half awake, are frantically trying to get some oil so they too could meet the groom.

No, God’s hand is not short, it has never been, and it will never be short. We just thought it too much of a bother to reach out and take that which He was offering, we thought it more advantageous to press the snooze button, ignore God, and just keep on sleeping.

God help us! God wake us!

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.