Welcome back to all of our listeners! I’m BJ Sipe, and you’re listening to the Set Your Mind Above podcast – where everyday ordinary events teach us extraordinary eternal truths. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in today, I am excited to share my life and my faith with you, and I sure hope that you’ll do the same with me along the way.
So, I am an extraordinarily heavy sleeper – I always have been. When I was in high school, I missed my bus so many times because I slept through my alarm, no matter how early I went to bed. I ended up getting one of those anoying traditional alarm clocks with the bells on top that are hit relentlessly by that little metal striker. It worked for a while, but then after a little bit of time not even that would wake me up. If it weren’t for my wife to help wake me up, I probably wouldn’t ever make it to anything on time in the mornings. I have no idea what it is, Kylie is convinced it might be a blood sugar issue and that I’m crashing at night, which apparently is common. It would explain why I often wake up confused and why I don’t wake unless I’m shaken awake, just about. In either case, usually it’s not a problem because even if I don’t hear my alarm Kylie does and she wakes me up. But this weekend Kylie has been gone to North Carolina with the kids to see her parents and her siblings, so I’ve been in the house all by myself every night and morning since Friday. This brings us to our crazy story that happened yesterday on Labor Day. I had been excited for weeks for an upcoming Labor Day golf excursion that I was invited to be a part of by a lot of the guys here at the Danville Church. Apparently it’s a Labor Day tradition for them to go golf 36 holes down at Dale Hallow State Park near the Tennessee boarder. Since it is 2 hours away and our tee time was around 8 am central time, we were going to convene at the Walmart at 5:45 am and carpool down together. I was so excited the night before. I went to Walmart on Sunday night and got a whole case of new balls, some more tees, and drinks to keep me hydrated during our golf outing. I made sure to get to bed at the proper time around 10:30 to make sure I would at least get 6 hours of sleep. I knew that I have a hard time waking up, so I set the most obnoxious and loud alarms you could imagine – 4 of them all 5 minutes apart – and placed my phone right next to my head. I drifted off to sleep, excited about what tomorrow would bring. The next thing I know, I jolted awake at the sound of someone pounding on my bedroom window. “BJ, are you okay? Is everything okay?” I recognized the voice outside my window as Annette Cooper, and that just heightened my confusion. I opened my eyes and was met with warm sunshine streaming through gaps in my closed curtains. Suddenly I realized…uh, oh, I had seriously overslept. “BJ, the guys all have been trying to call you for the past 3 hours – everyone was getting worried, are you okay?” Annette said through the window. “Yeah, I’m good. Come around front.” I responded. I went to the front door and let her in as I still tried to wake up. I looked at my phone after I let her in…6 missed calls, 5 missed texts, and no notification of any missed alarms. Either they went off and I didn’t hear them, or for some reason they never went off. In either case, it was now 8:30 EST, and the guys would be teeing off in 30 minutes. I couldn’t believe it, they called and called and called and yet nothing woke me up. I’ve got to say, I do feel super loved because they were concerned enough to send someone over to check on me. But how crazy is that, that it took someone banging on my window to wake me up? Needless to say, I’m glad this happened yesterday and not Sunday making me late to worship. And despite the fact that I woke up so late, I still was able to drive down and make it in time to join them for the back 9 on their first set, so I still got a full day of golf in by playing 27 holes. The guys are great, and though they gave me a hard time, it was well deserved.
Maybe you relate to this story and have several of your own – are there any other heavy sleepers out there? If you have any recommendations, I would certainly love to hear them! While being a heavy sleeper can certainly cause problems in our lives regarding work or other engagements, I believe there is another way in which we are hard to wake up in our lives. In his letter to the Ephesian church, Paul says the following in chapter 5:1-16, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” These words written by Paul serve as an important warning to us, and illuminate the fact that in our lives many of us are asleep spiritually. To quote the words of a favorite song by NF, “You spend your life in a dream that you can’t escape, ‘cause you live your life in a coma, you’re never awake. If you’d open your eyes then maybe you’d see what’s at stake, you’re sleeping…you’re sleeping.” Day in and day out, we can go through our lives oblivious to the fact that the things we are doing are wrong. Rather than being imitators of God, our lives are filled with impurity, immorality, and all kinds of things that should have no part of our lives. And here is the difficult part…there are many who know this, but they remain asleep. There is a cognitive dissonance between what they know and what they do. Jesus has called to you over and over again, and yet you stay asleep and continue to walk in darkness. Do you relate to this? You’ve sat through sermons, listened to lectures, been approached privately, even read Scripture yourself warning you that the things you are doing are wrong – and yet nothing seems to wake you up. Every time Jesus calls, nothing moves you to action to wake up and live differently. I know that personally I have been here in my life myself, where I continued to ignore the calls of Christ – that rather than being convicted I chose to harden my heart and continue to do what I wanted to do instead. It got to the point where Jesus had to come and pound on my window in my life and shake me awake, so to speak. So, let me ask you – what is it going to take for Jesus to get your attention? How many times does he need to call until you answer? Don’t continue to ignore his calls – wake up, allow Christ to shine on you, and start living your life in wisdom, righteousness, and walking in the light as true children of God.
Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode. Tune in, Tuesday-Fridays, as a new podcast episode will be uploaded each day. Also, be sure to follow the Facebook page for the Set Your Mind Above podcast for future announcements and video sessions. As you have the opportunity, share these thoughts with your friends and family, and share with me what important lessons you are learning from every day, ordinary events. Until next time know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each and every day set our minds above.