Church Sleeping Man

By Anne Jackson

Published: July 14, 2009

Over the last few months, I've had the opportunity to speak at several Sunday morning worship gatherings. Recently, I was thinking about one when a guy fell asleep (I'm pretty sure before I took the stage - I hope...) during the service.

It was a wide room, and he was a rather large man, seated somewhere in the middle. In otherwords, it was impossible to miss him as I would scan the audience to make eye contact.

I won't lie. Deep inside, something in me wanted to stop what I was talking about and ask someone to wake Church Sleeping Man up. When I would raise my voice a bit to make a point, I would focus right on him, hoping he'd snap out of it.

Nothing.

He was practically in a coma.

When I travel, I spend a lot of time in reflection on my flight home. I usually don't read or write, but pop in my earbuds to some Album Leaf, Explosions in the Sky (sounds like a death wish, I know), or Sigur Ros. No real lyrics, just music and mumblings. I allow myself to nod off a bit into that lucid state where I'm able to just allow thoughts to enter, I process them, and tuck them away.

On this flight home, I found myself not being able to move on from Church Sleeping Man.

Now, I don't know Church Sleeping Man personally. And what I feel inside (I'm tempted to call it anger, but am too chicken to actually do so) isn't directed specifically at him. But I do find myself getting really, really upset.

Because Church Sleeping Man represents so much of our culture today. Although we may not actually fall asleep during a church service, many of us are sleepwalking in our faith.

Myself included.

God has so many words for us to hear, so many opportunities to pursue, so many visions to chase, so many people to love, so many lives we can physically save with the resources we have and yet...

We sleep.

We live for the moments when we find ourselves alive, awake, and fulfilling a purpose. But those moments have become special because they are exceptions to our normally sleepy lives.

Sure, we dream a lot...but what do we do with those dreams after we wake up?

I truly believe that God has wired humanity the other way around. When our norm is constantly living in that state of being alive - fully, abundantly. While we're asleep - and dare I say it...only dreaming - we are being robbed of our very purpose in life.

Anne Jackson is author, speaker, and transformational activist who lives in the Nashville area with her husband, Chris. Her highly-anticipated book, Mad Church Disease - Overcoming the Burnout Epidemic (Zondervan) released in February 2009. Her next book is due to be out in Fall 2010.

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