Articles
Hitting The Spiritual Snooze Button
For a lot of men, it is tempting to fall into habits and become blind to the spiritual chaos surrounding them. This is often manifested in households that are in complete disarray: After a hard day of work, the husband wants nothing more than to sit in his chair and ignore the world around him. Many children grow up never knowing their fathers, because so many men prefer indifferent distance to hands-on participation in the family. Men hide in the garage, they hide in television, they run from their families to bars, they use sports as an escape, they run to adultery because it often has “no strings attached.” In a very true sense, a lot of men have ignored the problems around them in favor of snoozing their lives away. Instead of buckling down and changing the world, they just close their eyes and leave it alone. There are some very common phrases associated with “spiritual snooze buttons”:
“I just don’t want to talk about it any more.”
“I’m just tired from work.”
“Can’t this wait until tomorrow?”
“Why do you have to make a mountain out of a mole hill?”
“I’m fine, why aren’t you?”
“Just leave me alone.”
When we are not focused on Godly things, or accomplishing meaningful growth, we are what the Bible calls “drifting away” (Hebrews 2:1). How do you like the sound of that? Would any of us want our lives to be described as “adrift”? “And they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:26). When we allow ourselves to just wander through life or respond passively to situations, we are letting Satan have his way with us. That is the kind of target he loves most! “…To open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God…” (Acts 26:18). Christian men need to be admonished to keep their eyes open and wake up from the spiritual daze that grips them. “Awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we first believed” (Romans 13:11). And also see 1 Thessalonians 5:6, “So let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober.”
